Abstract: A repeater for local area networks of the MIL-STD-1553B type allows extension of the LAN to remote terminals. The repeater terminates the dual LAN buses and interfaces them with a single remote bus. Normally, the repeater is transparent to all traffic in the receive direction from both buses of the LAN to the remote terminal. In response to appropriate command words from the LAN, however, the repeater automatically switches direction at the correct time to transmit traffic from the remote terminal to the active bus of the LAN as called for by the LAN protocol, and then switches back. Safeguards are provided to reinitialize the repeater if a message failure occurs or the remote terminal fails to respond to a command word.