Patent ID: 7814248

Claim:
A common access ring (CAR) network comprising: one or more CAR masters, each coupled to a corresponding application module; a first set of one or more CAR slaves, each coupled to a corresponding application module; one or more CAR bridges; a first bus structure coupling the one or more CAR masters, the first set of one or more CAR slaves and the one or more CAR bridges in a main ring; a second set of one or more CAR slaves; and a second bus structure coupling the second set of one or more CAR slaves and a first CAR bridge of the one or more CAR bridges in a first sub-ring, wherein the first CAR bridge couples the main ring and the first sub-ring, wherein each of the one or more CAR masters, each of the CAR slaves in the first and second sets of one or more CAR slaves, and the first CAR bridge are assigned unique CAR node identifiers, wherein the CAR network implements a global flat address space, and wherein each of the one or more CAR masters and each of the CAR slaves in the first and second sets of one or more CAR slaves are configured to transmit messages on the main ring and the first sub-ring without the use of tokens.