Patent ID: 7359340

Claim:
Method for automatically allocating addresses to a multiplicity of modules interconnected by a network with an arborescent topology connected to a central unit, the address of each module being determined on the basis of the address of the module situated immediately upstream inside the network with respect to the central unit and already having an allocated address, the address determined being transmitted onto the network by the upstream module in an address allocation message comprising a phase for the automatic search for a module not having any allocated address situated closest downstream in the network to a module already having an address, this phase including for each downstream module not having any allocated address: the receiving by the downstream module of the address allocation message and the triggering by the latter of a delay time whose period is that much greater when the level of reception of the message is low, if at the end of the delay time the downstream module does not detect in the network any address capture message, the transmission by the latter of an address capture message containing the address to be allocated, the storing by the latter the address received as a module address, the determination by the latter the address of the module not having any allocated address situated the nearest downstream in the network and the triggering by the latter of the phase for the automatic search for the module not having any allocated address situated closest downstream in the network.