Patent ID: 7408950

Claim:
A multiple node network comprising a plurality of terminal nodes, a management node at least initially managing the terminal nodes, and a bus arranged to connect the respective terminal nodes and the management node to one another, the terminal nodes and the management node communicating with one another using a respective frame that includes at least an identifier field and a data field, at least some of the terminal nodes transferring a frame to the management node in which the data field contains a discriminative code, the management node arbitrating a contention between one or more of terminal nodes by comparing the identifier field of one terminal node in contention with the identifier field of another terminal node in contention, and at least some of the terminal nodes being capable of calculating a time delay based upon at least a portion of the discriminative code in the data field when arbitration fails and re-transferring the frame to the management node after the time delay, wherein the network is configured at least to control a plurality of engines that power a watereraft, at least two of the terminal nodes controlling the respective engines, each one of the terminal nodes that controls each one of the engines having the same identifier field and having a different discriminative code.