token bus <networking> (IEEE 802.4) A networking protocol which mediates access to a {bus} topology network as though it were a {token ring}. This eliminates the {collisions} found in {carrier sense collision detect} protocols. {Nodes} can be configured to pass the token in any order, not necessarily related to their physical ordering on the bus. The token is sent from one node to its successor in the logical ring by broadcast on the bus and is ignored by the other nodes. (1996-12-13)