Satellite communications system with random multiple access and time slot reservation

Patent 4736371 Issued on April 5, 1988. Estimated Expiration Date:

December 29, 2006. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Variable frame rate technique for use in a time-division multiple access (TDMA) communication system
Patent #: 4204093
Issued on: 05/20/1980
Inventor: Yeh

Demand assignment technique for TDMA satellite communication network
Patent #: 4322845
Issued on: 03/30/1982
Inventor: Fennel, Jr. , et al.

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Patent #: 4491947
Issued on: 01/01/1985
Inventor: Frank

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Patent #: 4538147
Issued on: 08/27/1985
Inventor: Grow

Multiple-access communications system
Patent #: 4612637
Issued on: 09/16/1986
Inventor: Davis , et al.

Announced retransmission random access system Patent #: 4641304
Issued on: 02/03/1987
Inventor: Raychaudhuri

Inventors

Application

No. 06/947097 filed on 12/29/1986

US Classes:

370/236, Including signaling between network elements370/432, Messages addressed to multiple destinations370/443, Using channel reservation370/445, Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA)370/459, Having indication of idle or busy state of time slot370/473Transmission of a single message having multiple packets

Examiners

Primary: Olms, Douglas W.
Assistant: Chin, Wellington

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Laff, Whitesel, Conte & Saret

International Classes

H04B 7/212 (20060101)
H04L 12/56 (20060101)

Foreign Application Priority Data

1985-12-30 JP

Abstract

A multiple access data communication system is disclosed wherein a communication channel is shared by a plurality of stations. The channel is divided into frames each being partitioned into time slots smaller in number than the number of stations of the system. A reservation status signal is constantly broadcast at frame intervals from a central station to all remote stations to indicate reserved status of the time slots. When a transmission request is made in a remote station, it discriminates a message signal shorter than the time slot length as a single packet having a time slot length and detects an idle time slot from the channel using the reservation status signal. If the message signal is longer than the time slot length, the station divides it into a series of packets of the time slot length and transmits a reservation request to the central station to receive from it a time-slot assignment signal and inserts the long-message packets to time slots specified by the time-slot assignment signal.