Multi-equipment routing method and master station for layered protocol communication network system

摘要

The multi-equipment routing method (700) and master station (400) include customized virtual ports that are selected by a polling unit in accordance with a link address header that identifies a matched secondary station to which the data message is to be delivered such that a network equipment type (NET) is also automatically identified. The routing method and master station provide for customizing functions typically found in layers 1-3 of the open systems interconnections OSI model such that a communication may occur between network of different equipment types, such as systems network architecture-type (SNA-type) and non-SNA type equipment.