Patent ID: 7497526

Claim:
An electronically controlled braking system comprising: at least one central control unit, said at least one central control unit operable to assign identifiers during an identifier assignment routine; a first distributed electronic control unit; a second distributed electronic control unit; a control network over which said at least one control unit, said first distributed electronic control unit and said second distributed electronic control unit are communicable; and wherein the identifiers comprise a first identifier and a second identifier, wherein one of the first identifier or the second identifier is assigned to said first distributed electronic control unit and the other of the first identifier or the second identifier is assigned to said second distributed electronic control unit at least in part based upon the positions of said first distributed electronic control unit and said second distributed electronic control unit within the braking system, and wherein the positions of said first distributed electronic control unit and said second distributed electronic control unit within the braking system are determined at least in part by the timing of identification signals generated by said first distributed electronic control unit and said second distributed electronic control unit reaching said central control unit via said control network.