Timeslot management method, a related network terminator, a related line terminator and an upstream signal frame structure for a time division multiple access system

A time slot management method of a time division multiple access system that couples a line terminator via a tree-like network to a plurality of network terminators, said method comprising:

• transmitting, by said line terminator, at least one grant towards a network terminator in order to allocate a plurality of adjacent subsequent upstream time-slots to said network terminator, respectively, wherein each of said plurality of time-slots corresponds to each of said at least one grant, respectively;
• receiving said at least one grant by said network terminator from said line terminator;
• recognizing if said at least one grant is associated to said network terminator, and
• in response to recognizing that said at least one grant is associated to said network terminator, transmitting, in a data burst, overhead data in a first time slot of said plurality of time-slots and payload data in each adjacent subsequent time-slot of said plurality of time-slots allocated to said network terminator, wherein the overhead data in the first time-slot is a combined overhead data of the each adjacent subsequent time-slot, and wherein said network terminator receives said at least one grant for transmitting the data burst at least once per buffer reporting cycle.