Abstract: The invention relates to, inter alia, a thick matter conveying system (10) comprising a thick matter pump (16) for conveying a thick matter, comprising a double-piston-type core pump (15) which has a pump frequency; an S tube (24) which can be switched by the pump frequency; and a thick matter distributing mast (18) for distributing the thick matter to be conveyed, wherein the thick matter distributing mast (18) has at least two mast arms (41); a substructure (30) on which the thick matter distributing mast (18) and the thick matter pump (16) are arranged, said substructure (30) comprising a support structure (31) for supporting the substructure (30) by means of at least one horizontally and/or vertically movable support leg (32); a sensor unit (11) for sequentially detecting at least one piece of operating information at at least one first and second point in time; and a processing unit (12) which is designed to determine a stability parameter of the thick matter conveying system (10) on the basis of the at

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for synchronizing a communications cycle and a communications node in a network. The node is formed with devices for receiving a desired value for a time base of a communications cycle of the communications node in a communications link to an additional communications node of the network. The node also includes devices for determining a system deviation between the desired value and an actual value of the time base, and a device for generating a manipulated variable for correcting the time base in accordance with the system deviation.