The greater the number of devices on a network, the higher load in the
network, the more chance of a collision occurring, and the longer it takes
to transmit a message. The size of load can be identified by measuring the
network occupancy, hence it is desirable to minimize the latter. In this
paper, we present an approach for network occupancy minimization by
optimizing the packing process while satisfying multiple constraints. We
formulate the minimization problem as a bin packing problem and we implement
a modification of the Best-Fit Decreasing algorithm to find the optimal
solution. The approach considers grouping signals that are sent to different
destinations in the same package. The analysis is done on a medium-sized
plant model, and different topologies are tested. The results show that the
proposed solution lowers the network occupancy compared to a reference case.