Controlled star network

A controlled star coupler communications network, comprising:

• a plurality of transmitting and receiving stations;
• an equal plurality of incoming transmission channels from the stations;
• selection means for choosing one of the incoming channels for broadcast;
• an equal plurality of outgoing transmission channels for transmission of messages to the respective stations;
• and
• a star coupler for distributing the message received on the selected incoming channel to all of the outgoing channels;
• wherein the selection means includes queueing means, for queueing any incoming channel for later selection when the star coupler is already broadcasting a prior message;
• and wherein
• available time on the network is divided into time slots of a duration equal to the time it takes to transmit or receive one message packet,
• each of the stations begins transmitting only when it has a packet ready to send and only at the beginning of a time slot, and
• the queueing means polls for and queues newly transmitting stations only once every time slot.

A controlled star coupler communications network, comprising:

• a plurality of transmitting and receiving stations;
• an equal plurality of incoming transmission channels from the stations;
• selection means for choosing one of the incoming channels for broadcast;
• an equal plurality of outgoing transmission channels for transmission of messages to the respective stations;
• and
• a star coupler for distributing the message received on the selected incoming channel to all of the outgoing channels;
• wherein the selection means includes queueing means, for queueing any incoming channel for later selection when the star coupler is already broadcasting a prior message;
• wherein the queueing means includes
• register means, for registering the arrival of a message packet from each station, and for registering the priority of the message,
• polling means, for scanning the register means for newly detected active stations,
• encoding means, for converting the location of a registered message in the register means to a corresponding station number, and
• at least two queues for storing station numbers from the encoding means.

A hierarchical controlled star communications network, comprising:

• a first level having a plurality of controlled star couplers, each with selection means connected to receive messages from a plurality of sending and receiving stations, and with a star coupler connected to transmit to the same plurality of stations, wherein each selection means has an output port for transmission of a message from the selected station and each star coupler has an input port for input of a message to a broadcast to the plurality of stations;
• at least one additional level having at least one additional controlled star coupler, which has an additional selection means and an additional star coupler, wherein the additional selection means receives over incoming channels messages transmitted from the output ports of the first-level selection means, and the additional star coupler transmits over outgoing channels to the input ports of the first-level star couplers;
• and
• means connecting the output port of the additional selection means with the input port of the additional star coupler;
• whereby a message transmitted by one of the stations is first selected by one of the first-level selection means, transmitted to the additional selection means, and, upon selection there, is transmitted back through the additional star coupler and the first-level star couplers, to be broadcast to all of the stations.

A controlled star coupler communications network, comprising:

• a plurality of transmitting and receiving stations;
• an equal plurality of incoming transmission channels from the stations;
• selection means for choosing one of the incoming channels for broadcast;
• an equal plurality of outgoing transmission channels for transmission of messages to the respective stations;
• a star coupler for distributing the message received on the selected incoming channel to all of the outgoing channels;
• and
• means for processing the receipt of continuous traffic from at least one continuous-traffic station, and according a higher priority to meassages from the continuous-traffic stations;
• and wherein the selection means includes queueing means, for queuing any incoming channel for later selection when the star coupler is already broadcasting a prior message.