Abstract: A method is proposed for operating a network with multiple subscribers in the network. For this purpose, a network having at least one switch (20, 21), at least two terminals (10, 11, 12) and a controller (30) is provided. According to the invention, one of the subscribers now sends and/or receives data to another subscriber via an application protocol, with the data being sent and/or received as a TSN data stream. In order to integrate non-TSN-capable nodes in the network, it is proposed that the TSN data stream be divided into at least two partial data streams (1, 2, 3, 4). Such partial data streams (1, 2, 3, 4) can be configured across non-TSN-capable subscribers or between such subscribers.

Abstract: A method is proposed for operating a network having at least one switch, at least two terminals, and a controller. The controller can send data to a terminal via an application protocol, the data BEING sent via data packets within the network's link layer, as is common in a conventional Ethernet network. An additional address is added to the data packets within the data link layer (1) and the switch sends the transmission to the addressed terminal via the address (2, 6). Before transmission to the addressed terminal, the address of the data packets is deleted (3). This creates a virtual automation network within an Ethernet network.

Abstract: A method is proposed for operating a network with several subscribers in the network. For this purpose, the network has at least one switch (10, 11, 12), at least two terminals and at least one controller. According to the invention, the controller can now communicate with one of the terminals via an application protocol. For this purpose, data is sent and/or received as data packets. In order to be able to schedule the communication, time slots are provided for sending the data packets that are adapted to a maximum possible packet size. For this purpose, the time slots have a start time and an end time so that they can overlap in different branches of the network. To optimize communication time, the packet sizes (5) can be changed. To avoid wasting bandwidth in the network, the time slots are adapted to the packet size accordingly by changing the start times and the end times (6).