Method & apparatus for data exchange in data processing installations

An improved method for exchange of data in data processing installations, especially Controller Areas Networks (CAN), permits acknowledged and segmented transmission of data strings, of arbitrarily long length, between at least two stations in the network or other data processing installation. The method includes the transmission of the messages associated with the data by means of frames; the frames contain a header field and a data field. In the event of contention between multiple stations of the data processing installation for access to the bus connection, which frame has priority is determined by evaluating the respective header fields. In the data field of the frame, there is a control information field (58, 95) containing a message code which serves to identify the message type. The message codes distinguish among activation messages (AR, AC), data messages (DT), and acknowledgement (AK) messages. This permits transmission of data strings, of limited length, with acknowledgement. Further, the control information fields (58, 95) of certain messages contain a sequence number, a receiver status code, a message end code, and a code specifying how many data bytes are being transmitted in the frame. With this additional information, data strings of arbitrarily long length may be transmitted as segments. The receipt of the individual partial messages is confirmed by sending back an acknowledgment in each case.