> I don't know the proper name, but the principle is that each node has a
> number. During arbitration each station that wants to send puts his
> number on the bus, but it looses when the (open-collector type) bus does
> not show the bit it is putting on the bus. This ensures arbitration
> between N stations in log(N) bits. Add rotation to achieve fairness,
> when needed. I'm not sure whether you will call this simple....
>
> Wouter van Ooijen

That is the way CAN arbitration works.  If one node is more a "controller"
and the other "slaves", then you can use master arbitration.  One scheme is
the master gives each slave a chance to communicate in round-robin fashion.
The slave either communicates or indicates it has nothing to say so that the
master can quickly address the next slave.  I used this scheme successfully
on an RS-485 network controlling a bunch of separate PICs in a flight
simulator system once.  CAN would be a better choice for this project today.


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