Heinz Schlesinger

Concept of a local integrated operation network for different information flows

The network, called ALADIN, is a modular network for industrial, domestic, and automotive applications which integrates isochronous and asynchronous services ranging from a few kb/s to several Mb/s. ALADIN is based on a star structure with a passive optical star coupler. The ALADIN control is decentralized for safety reasons. A master station which is dynamically determined at start-up, generates synchronous frames and the other stations include their data into these frames by superposition in the star coupler. The paper describes the concept and the building principles of the network, the protocols, and the routines for synchronization.