Abstract

A system, device, and method for improving access in a hybrid contention/polling protocol maintains a list of active users, a list of recently active users, and a list of inactive users. An active user that becomes inactive is moved into the list of recently active users, and a recently active user that remains inactive is moved into the list of inactive users. A limited contention poll addressed to a number of inactive users and at least one recently active user authorizes any of the addressed users to contend for access to the shared channel. Upon detection of a collision, addressed users that are in the list of recently active users are polled individually, while the inactive users are sent a collision resolution poll which forces the inactive users to contend again for access. Users that become active are moved into the list of active users.