Patent ID: 7443875

Claim:
An information communication device for communicating information among a plurality of components, the information communication device comprising: a plurality of nodes, each being of a particular node type that correspond to a particular transmission slot of a plurality of transmission slots, each transmission slot formed from a communication cycle having a prescribed time period, said plurality of transmission slots being synchronized with one another; said communication cycle further comprising a static transmission area and a dynamic transmission area, said static transmission area including the plurality of transmission slots that correspond to the node types, and the dynamic transmission area being adapted to transmit information indicative of a transmission conflict between at least two nodes; and each of the plurality of nodes comprising a conflict detector that determines when the transmission conflict occurs as a result of nodes of the same node type beginning transmission using the same transmission slot, and a transmission area setter for changing at least one of the transmission slots in the static transmission area from a first assigned transmission slot to a second assigned transmission slot based upon information transmitted in the dynamic transmission area.