Patent ID: 7362699

Claim:
A network for distributing information, between a central unit and stations, comprising: information splitting devices with inputs/outputs connected to the central unit and to the stations, an interface device in each station, wherein the interface device of each station is linked to a first splitting device and to a second splitting device by the interface device of at least one additional station, wherein protocol exchanges between the central unit and the interface device are organized such that the central unit can determine whether a terminal is faulty, an interface is faulty, or the splitting device is faulty, and wherein each splitting device is configured to support a higher bit rate than the nominal bit rate of the splitting device, and when the central unit determines that the terminal, the interface or the splitting device is faulty, a network load is distributed to each non-faulty splitting device such that the bit rate increase in each non-faulty splitting device is less than the nominal bit rate.