Patent ID: 7586933

Claim:
A network system, the system comprising: an interconnecting network; a reference network node communicating with said interconnecting network, said reference node having a reference node communication time schedule; and a plurality of network nodes coupled to said interconnecting network, said network nodes each being adapted to detect, before integration as an active network node, whether or not there is any activity of other network nodes and, if no activity is detected, to assign itself as said reference network node and to transmit position messages predetermined in a communication schedule to other network nodes, and each network node is adapted to select, if activity is detected, a network node from which a position message is received as said reference network node and to adjust its local communication time schedule to said reference node communication time schedule, wherein each network node is adapted to integrate as an active network node in case of a positive result of an agreement check between said local communication time schedule and communication time schedules of at least a part of active network nodes.