Method and apparatus of allocating minimum and maximum bandwidths on a bus-based communication system with redundant communication circuits

A communications circuit comprising:

• a transmit circuit to transmit information onto a cell bus;
• a receive circuit to receive information from the cell bus;
• a memory to store grant information regarding a plurality of arbitration periods, the grant information for each arbitration period including a first stored identity that identifies a first communication circuit, and a second stored identity that identifies a second communication circuit;
• and
• a logic circuit connected to the transmit circuit, the receive circuit, and the memory to determine whether any communication circuits requested control of a bus during an arbitration period, the logic circuit to determine a first and a second stored identity associated with the arbitration period, and whether any requesting communication circuit has an identity that matches the first or the second stored identity.