Patent ID: 6697874
Filing Date: 2004-02-24
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A method of controlling access of a plurality of terminal adapters to first and second transmission means, the first transmission means interconnecting the terminal adapters to form a daisy chain for transmitting downstream packets and the second transmission means interconnecting the terminal adapters to form a daisy chain for transmitting upstream packets, the first and second transmission means transmitting signals sequentially from terminal adapter to terminal adapter, the signals including a series of packets, each packet including a data field, a request field, and an answer field and being transmitted in a request direction or in an answer direction, the method comprising, at each terminal adapter, the steps of:determining if an incoming request is for the respective terminal adapter and if the respective terminal adapter has a request to transmit; keeping track of outgoing capacity of the first and second transmission means as a result of the determining step; and transmitting a request in the request direction or an answer in the answer direction based on the keeping track step.