Method for operating a network and network participants

1. A method for operating a network,

wherein a first network participant of the network is connected via a first connection to a further network participant of the network, and

wherein the first network participant carries out the following steps:

receiving a data message containing the information that a parameter must be set to a first value in connections, via the first connection, and

checking whether the first network participant is connected via a second connection to a still further network participant of the network and checking whether the parameter is not set to the first value in the second connection;

wherein the first network participant in this case carries out the following further steps:

forwarding the data message via the second connection,

clearing down the second connection,

re-establishing the second connection, wherein the parameter for the second connection is set to the first value; and

wherein the first network participant transmits the data message via all its connections in which the parameter is not set to the first value, except via the first connection.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein a second network participant of the network is connected via a third connection and a fourth connection to further network participants of the network, and

wherein the second network participant carries out the following steps:

recognizing that the parameter is set to the first value in the third connection and the parameter is set to a second value in the fourth connection,

transmitting the data message containing the information that the parameter must be set to the first value in connections,

clearing down the fourth connection, and

re-establishing the fourth connection, wherein the parameter for the fourth connection is set to the first value.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the second network participant transmits the data message via the fourth connection.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the second network participant transmits the data message via all its connections in which the parameter is not set to the first value.

5. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the second network participant does not transmit the data message via the third connection.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein a second network participant of the network is connected via a third connection to a further network participant of the network, and

wherein the second network participant carries out the following step:

transmitting the data message containing the information that the parameter must be set to the first value in connections, via the third connection.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the second network participant carries out the following further steps:

clearing down the third connection; and

re-establishing the third connection, wherein the parameter for the third connection is set to the first value.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the parameter is a transmission rate.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the first value is a transmission rate of 100 Mbit/s.

10. The method as claimed in claims 2 and 8 , wherein the second value is a transmission rate of 1 Gbit/s.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the parameter is a message format, a minimum message length, a maximum message length, a minimum time interval between two transmitted data frames, a line code or an addressing mode.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data message is an Ethernet message.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the data message is an EtherCAT message.

14. A network participant, wherein the network participant is designed to carry out a method as claimed in claim 1 .