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AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
InventorsServerius Petrus Paulus Pronk, Ludovicus Marinus Gerardus Maria Tolhuizen, Ewa Barbara Hekstra-Nowacka
Estimating the term…
A communication network comprises a head-end and a plurality of network terminations coupled thereto through a shared communication channel, which is accessed by a protocol having one or more dedicated slots wherein upstream data cells are contained, which may collide in a transmission wherein two or more network terminations try to access the shared communication channel practically simultaneously. Herein the protocol is arranged such that the one or more dedicated slots precede the moment whereon the first next downstream transmission is started to be prepared by the head-end. In that case actual information in the dedicated slots can be fed back without substantial delay to the network terminations in order to provide them by return with actual contention information.
A communication network comprising a head-end and a plurality of network terminations capable of communicating through a shared communication channel, whereby occasionally contending network terminations try to communicate by simultaneously accessing one or more dedicated slots in upstream communication to the head-end, characterized in that the head-end is arranged such that the receipt of the dedicated slots by the head-end precedes the moment in time whereon the head-end starts preparing a corresponding communication containing contention resolution information.
The communication network according to one of the claims 1-7, characterized in that the head-end is arranged to operate on a frame-by-frame basis.
A head-end coupled via a shared communication channel to a plurality of network terminations, whereby occasionally contending network terminations try to communicate by simultaneously accessing one or more dedicated slots in upstream communication to the head-end, characterized in that the head-end is arranged such that the receipt of the dedicated slots by the head-end precedes the moment in time whereon the head-end starts preparing a corresponding communication containing contention resolution information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.