Patent ID: 7466717

Claim:
A method of exchanging data between a plurality of stations connected by a bus system, the data being contained in messages, each of the messages including a respective identifier characterizing a respective portion of the data contained therein, each of the plurality of stations deciding whether to receive each of the messages on the basis of the respective identifier, the method comprising: repeatedly transmitting, by a first one of the plurality of stations, a reference message, the reference message containing time information of the first one of the plurality of stations, the reference message being transmitted over the bus system in at least one specifiable time interval, the at least one specifiable time interval being subdivided into a plurality of time windows, each of the plurality of time windows having a specifiable length; and transmitting the messages containing the data in the plurality of time windows; combining the reference message and time windows of the plurality of time windows following the reference message until a next reference message into a first cycle of one of i) a specifiable length, and ii) a specifiable structure corresponding to a length, a number and a chronological position of the time windows following the reference message in the at least one specifiable time interval.