Expandable repeater

摘要

A discrete repeater having a predetermined number of ports includes an expansion port permitting connection of one or more of similar devices to produce a single repeater unit having an increased number of ports. The expansion port includes two bidirectional channels, an output channel and two input channels. An arbiter function connects to each discrete repeater to assert appropriate signals to permit the discrete repeaters making up a repeater unit to exchange data and collision information. This exchange of data is used in a state machine of the discrete repeaters to provide a repeater unit with distributed repeater and relay functions.