Patent ID: 7467246

Claim:
A local network comprising at least one master and a plurality of slaves which can be controlled by the master via a data bus, wherein at least one slave is arranged in a protected region, and at least one slave is arranged in an unprotected region, wherein the master is coupled with the slaves via at least two transceivers such that data originating from a respective slave in the unprotected region can admittedly be transmitted to the master, but not to any slave in the protected region, wherein a data output of the master is connected to a data input of the one transceiver directly coupled with the slave or slaves in the protected region, a data output of this transceiver is connected to a data input of the other transceiver directly coupled with the slave or slaves in the unprotected region and a data output of this transceiver is connected to a data input of the master, and wherein the transceiver directly coupled with the slave or slaves in the protected region forwards the data received at its respective data input and transmitted by the master to the slave or slaves in the protected region; in that both the data transmitted by the master and the response signals of the slave or slaves arranged in the protected region can be transmitted via the respective data output of this transceiver to the respective data input of the other transceiver which is directly coupled with the slave or slaves in the unprotected region and which forwards these data to the slave or slaves in the unprotected region; and in that the response signals of all slaves can be transmitted to the respective data input of the master via the respective output of this transceiver.