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US 4,901,311 AGranted
Communication method and equipment therefor
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorKoichi Tanaka
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AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorKoichi Tanaka
Estimating the term…
The present invention relates to a communication method using a small-scale computer network and a communication equipment used therefor. Particularly, a novel communication method in a communication equipment is capable of accumulating a plurality of communication data, i.e., frames at the same time and having a function to sequentially transmit them to the network. According to this method, after transmission of a single frame is completed, when the condition is satisfied that a predetermined time has passed or the condition that the transmission of the frame from any other communication equipment is completed, transmission of the next frame is initiated. Accordingly, this method eliminates the possibility that solely a specified communication station occupies the network, thus making it possible to improve efficiency in use of the network.
A communication method using LAN of a CSMA/CD system, wherien each communication equipment initiates a transmission delay instruction after transmission of a frame is completed, terminates said transmission delay instruction when either the condition that a first predetermined time has passed from the time when said transmission of the frame is completed or the condition that a second predetermined time has passed from the time when reception from any other communication equipment is completed, and initiates transmission of the next frame, provided that said transmission delay instruction has been terminated, wherein the first and second predetermined times have such a relationship that said second predetermined time is less than 2.tau. which is less than or equal to the first predetermined time, where .tau. is a time required until a signal is propagated to another communication equipment located at a furthermost position.
A communication equipment consitituting LAN of the CSMA/CD system, said communication equipment comprising a timer section for counting a predetermined time, a carrier sense section for sensing that a frame transmitted from any other communication equipment is being received, a transmission section for controlling the frame transmission, and a transmission delay section for instructing said transmission section to delay transmission of the frame, the occurrence of said transmission delay instruction being initiated when transmission of a frame is completed, said transmission delay instruction being terminated in response to either of two facts which has occurred earlier, one fact being that said timer section has counted said predetermined time, the other fact being that said carrier sense section has output a sense signal, the frame transmission being initiated only when a predetermined time as a minimum interframe time has passed and said transmission delay instruction is terminated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.