Patent ID: 6898467

Claim:
A method for communicating instructions in a peer-to-peer distributed network system, the method comprising the steps of: (A) initiating at least one command at at least one of a plurality of controllers, each of the plurality of controllers being responsive to commands received and capable of initiating and transmitting at least one command to at least one other of the plurality of controllers; (B) determining whether the communication bus is clear; (C) if the communication bus is clear, transmitting the at least one command from the at least one of the plurality of controllers to the at least one other of the plurality of controllers via the communication bus; (D) receiving the at least one command, from the at least one of the plurality of controllers, at the at least one other of the plurality of controllers; (E) determining if a message acknowledge, generated by the at least one other of the plurality of controllers, is received at the at least one of the plurality of controllers; (F) if the message acknowledge is not received, determining whether a timeout counter has expired and attempting to retry transmitting the at least one command if the timeout counter has not expired; (G) if the timeout counter is determined to have expired, determining whether a retry counter has expired; and (H) if the retry counter is determined to have expired, activating a transmit error alarm; wherein said at least one transmitted command includes said at least one command initiated at the at least one of the plurality of controllers and wherein said at least one initiated command is independent of at least one command previously received by the least one of the plurality of controllers.