Patent ID: 8493975

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a FlexRay bus system having a physical layer by which data are transmitted; a plurality of FlexRay network nodes by which respective data packets are provided over the physical layer of the FlexRay bus system while in an IP data packet format or an Ethernet data packet format, said IP data packet format or the Ethernet data packet format each having a plurality of bit positions; wherein each FlexRay network node comprises: a media access layer configured such that the data provided in the IP data packet format or the Ethernet data packet format are converted into a preset media-independent data format; and an adaptation layer operatively configured such that data packets provided in the media-independent data format are converted onto corresponding signals of the physical layer of the FlexRay bus system, wherein, via the adaptation layer, contents of said bit positions of the data provided in the media-independent data format are each converted onto corresponding signals of the physical layer of the FlexRay bus system.