BUS-CONFIGURED LOCAL AREA NETWORK WITH DATA EXCHANGE CAPABILITY

摘要

A local area network in which a plurality of local equipments, each having one or more terminals connected thereto, are connected to different points of a common signal transmission path leading from a central equipment. The central equipment sends out data signals addressed to the local equipments to the common path on a time division basis. Each local equipment sends a data signal from the terminals to the central equipment in response to the reception of a self-addressed data signal from the central equipment. To avoid a collision or overspace between the data signals transmitted from local equipments the central equipment sends out control signals addressed to the local equipments in response to signals from the local equipments. Each local equipment controls the transmission start timing of the data signal to the central equipment in response to the self-addressed control signal.