Patent ID: 7814187

Claim:
A method for determining a topology of system modules, comprising: obtaining information on the topology of a first system module with respect to at least one second system module, the first and the second system modules selected from the group consisting of control system units and terminal components; automatically recognizing the existence of at least one further system module; determining a spatial structure of at the least one further system module with respect to the topology of the first system module with respect to the at least one second system module; providing a separate information module for each of the first and the at least one second system modules; storing connection information of the first system module in the information module of the first system module, the information module having information on the topology of the first system module with respect to the at least one second system module, and the spatial structure with respect to the possibilities for positioning of the at least one further system module, the information module of the first system module having no information about the topology of the further system module, retrieving the connection information on the topology of the first system module via an interface assigned to the respective information module of the first system module; processing the connection information; outputting the connection information on the topology; and using the connection information to add the at least one further system module.