Communication control device and method for automatically determining a self-address

Claim 1

A communication control device for an information transmission system in which a plurality of communication control devices are used, comprising: a first storage means for storing all of a plurality of candidate values which are adoptable as a self-address of said communication control device; a process means for selecting one of said candidate values which is unused by another device in the system as the self-address of said communication control device; and a second storage means for initially storing an initial value to indicate that the self-address of said communication control device has not been selected, and for subsequently storing the selected candidate value, wherein said process means comprises: a judgment means for judging whether said initial value is stored in said second storage means; a transmission means for sending to said information transmission system at least one signal in which each of said candidate values is set to a destination address in accordance with a pre-ordered sequence, one candidate value at a time, when said judgment means judges that said initial value is stored in said second storage means; and a decision means for selecting a candidate value to be the self-address of said communication control device, if no response is obtained from said information transmission system.