Shared time universal multiple access network
AssigneeAster Wireless
InventorsMark E. Schrader, Allen D. Heberling
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of controlling access to a network media by a plurality of stations, the method including determining a number of time slots; determining a number of slot cycles for each time slot, at least one of the time slots having more than one slot cycle; assigning each station one or more slot cycles in one or more time slots; and operating each of the stations by initializing an access timer to time out at the beginning of the station's assigned slot cycle(s) and transmitting data during the assigned slot cycle(s), the access timer being stopped whenever a station transmits over the network, and restarted at the end of transmission.
Claims8
A method of controlling access to a network media by a plurality of stations, the method comprising:
- determining a number of time slots;
- determining a number of slot cycles for each time slot, at least one of the time slots having more than one slot cycle;
- assigning each station one or more slot cycles in one or more time slots;
- operating each of the stations by initializing an access timer to time out at the beginning of the station's assigned slot cycle(s) and transmitting data during the assigned slot cycle(s), the access timer being stopped whenever a station transmits over the network, and restarted at the end of transmission;
- and
- sending a standard sync signal after a cycle of each of the time slots, and sending a master sync signal after the time slots have cycled a number of times corresponding to the number of slot cycles of the time slot having the most slot cycles.
A method of controlling access to a network media by a plurality of station, the method comprising:
- determining a number of time slots;
- determining a number of slot cycles for each time slot, at least one of the time slots having more than one slot cycle;
- assigning each station one or more slot cycles in one or more time slots;
- and
- operating each of the stations by initializing an access timer to time out at the beginning of the station's assigned slot cycle(s) and transmitting data during the assigned slot cycle(s), the access timer being stopped whenever a station transmits over the network, and restarted at the end of transmission;
- wherein a slot cycle is assigned to a station using a three number access vector including a time slot number, a slot cycle number within the time slot and a total number of slot cycles assigned to the time slot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.