Patent attributes
A Device-to-Device Communication Bus protocol may facilitate transmission of a two to four byte packet by any device sharing the bus. All devices on the bus may monitor the bus, receiving all packets transmitted by other devices and recognizing when they may initiate transmission. The first byte of the packet may be an Address byte uniquely identifying the sender and allowing hardware arbitration to uniquely select one of any number of senders who may wish to transmit and begin transmission simultaneously. Arbitration may take place during transmission of the Address byte, with the transmitting device monitoring a bus bit value as it is transmitting the Address byte. If the data value observed by the transmitting device doesn't match the transmitting device's desired transmit value, the transmitting device may recognize loss of arbitration and suspend transmission to retry once the packet is complete. The receive function in every device may accept the packet as a normal received packet. The arbitration scheme may also include a fairness mechanism to insure one or several devices cannot monopolize the bus.
