Abstract: A method and apparatus for recognizing whether data on a network is intended for a terminal of the network. An identifier having a high-order portion and a low-order portion is received by a terminal. The terminal looks up, in a direct read table, whether the direct read table contains an entry corresponding to the high portion. The direct read table can contain, for each high portion, a size of a search table corresponding to low portions of the received identifier, a flag or bit, indicating that there a search table for a particular high portion, and an address of the search table. If the direct read table determines that there is a search table for the received high portion, a dichotomizing search process is executed to find an entry in the search table corresponding to the low portion. The dichotomizing search process divides the search table in half to determine if the received low portion of the identifier is in the lower or upper part of the search table.

Abstract: Arbitration between collisions is performed by means of a special arbitration path ARB conveying access requests expressed in the form of arbitration frames ARB %. An arbitration frame includes a priority field defining different classes of traffic, and a numerical field identifying each station, together with bits that relax priority constraints. The application of arbitration frames is subordinate to recognizing that a delimiter channel of the data path DATA is in an active state. The invention is applicable to industrial networks or buses.