The solicit-successor frame creates a response window. The response window is a period of time during which the token-holding station can accept an additional member of the logical ring. If a number of stations want to get into the logical ring during a response window, they will all send out the set-successor frame, there will be a collision, and the soliciting station will get a garbled message. After this frame, the stations that want to get in on the logical ring contend for the privilege of getting into the logical ring in an orderly manner. Before describing how this contention proceeds, a characteristic of the network must be defined.
Slot time is the longest amount of time any station needs to wait for another station to respond.
This delay is equal to the time it takes for a signal from the initiating station to propagate over the cable and be received by the addressed station, for the addressed station to send out a response frame, and for the response frame signal to propagate back over the cable again. In any given network, the slot time must be calculated and put into each station as a network parameter. This means that a meter of cable delays a signal about 4.1 nano-seconds. The typical delay of a single station's response is about 10 micro-seconds. This frame is one slot time long to the token holder.