Patent ID: 7428222

Claim:
A method of bridging local nodes that are not bridge aware from one bus branch through a backbone bus to another bus branch, each bus branch having a bridge device comprising a bridge portal and a backbone portal, the bridge device having control over local nodes in the branch, the method comprising the steps of: assigning a cycle master (CM) to control the backbone bus; assigning a backbone bus node number to other backbone nodes; the CM requests all bridge devices to initiate a bus configuration sequence, the bridge devices performing the bus configuration sequence comprising: resetting each local node; tree-identification of local nodes; self-identification of local nodes controlled by a branch root node, the self-identification comprising a physical-identification; collecting self-identification packets in the branch root node; transmitting the collection of local self-identification packets to the CM; forming a database of self-identification packets from all nodes in the network; transmitting the database of self-identification packets to all bridge devices; translating, in each bridge, the physical-identification of each remote node to a virtual local node identification that is unique within the branch; adding a phantom node to the list of virtual local node identifications; and initiating, by each bridge, another bus configuration sequence wherein the branch root additionally transmits translated self-identification packet corresponding to remote nodes; whereby each local node addresses remote nodes using virtual local node identifications.