General The data-link layer provides basic time-critical messaging communications between devices in an automation environment. This protocol provides communication opportunities to all participating data-link entities@ sequentially and in a cyclic synchronous manner. Foreground scheduled access is available for time-critical activities together with background unscheduled access for less critical activities. Deterministic and synchronized transfers can be provided at cyclic intervals up to 1 ms and device separations of 25 km. This performance is adjustable dynamically and on-line by reconfiguring the parameters of the local link whilst normal operation continues. By similar means@ DL connections and new devices may be added or removed during normal operation. This protocol provides means to maintain clock synchronization across an extended link with a precision better than 10 ??. This protocol optimizes each access opportunity by concatenating multiple DLSDUs and associated DLPCI into a single DLPDU@ thereby improving data transfer efficiency for datalink entities that actively source multiple streams of data. The maximum system size is an unlimited number of links of 99 nodes@ each with 255 DLSAP-addresses. Each link has a maximum of 224 related peer and publisher DLCEPs.