Patent ID: 7894336

Claim:
A method for controlling the movement of a plurality of machine parts using a communication network tolerating a breakdown or decoupling of at least one network node ( 2 ), wherein the network is operated according to a closed multiple ring structure, in which each node ( 2 ) communicates with a transmitter (TX) or the port ( 12 ) of a first adjacent node ( 2 ) by means of a receiver (RX) or a first port ( 11 ) and with the receiver (RX) or the port ( 11 ) of a second adjacent network node ( 2 ) by means of a transmitter (TX) or a second port ( 12 ), and the closed ring structure is preserved in the case of a breakdown or decoupling of at least one of the nodes ( 2 ), at least one of the nodes ( 2 ) is coupled to the network via a data path switching device ( 1 ) which is actuated in the case of a breakdown or decoupling of said node ( 2 ) in such a way that the communicating nodes ( 2 ) which exist in the network and are arranged next to each other in the ring structure interact in communication by means of a relevant port ( 11 , 12 ) or transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) thereof after the breakdown or decoupling, the method comprising: (a) operating the network on the basis of a double ring structure; (b) communicating to and from each node ( 2 ) with each node's two nearest adjacent nodes ( 2 ) by means of two bi-directional communication ports ( 11 , 12 ), each bi-directional port comprising a transmitter (TX) and a receiver (RX); (c) using at least one switching device ( 1 ) with four bi-directional communication ports ( 11 , 12 , 21 , 22 ) and allocating two ( 11 , 12 ) of the four bi-directional communication ports to adjacent nodes ( 2 ) and allocating the other two ( 21 , 22 ) of the four bi-directional communication ports to the node ( 2 ) to be coupled and used for generating communication flags (link) to indicate whether the node ( 2 ) to be coupled is capable of communication or not; and (d) controlling the switching device ( 1 ), when not capable of communication, by the communication flags (link) in such a way that the ports ( 21 , 22 ) of the switching device ( 1 ) associated with the coupled node ( 2 ) or the coupled node ( 2 ) are bridged, and therefore the coupled node ( 2 ) is separated from the ring structure.