Patent ID: 7009993

Claim:
A method for contention resolution in a transmission system ( 1 ) having a primary station ( 2 ) and a plurality of secondary stations ( 3 - 1 , 3 -n) coupled to the primary station ( 2 ), characterised in that Sign-On request messages are being sent by the primary station ( 2 ) marking starts of contention periods, numbered i =0, 1, 2 . . . , and having period length P i ; that N i denotes the number of secondary stations ( 3 - 1 , . . . 3 -n) participating at the start of contention period i; that each of a number M i of the secondary stations ( 3 - 1 , . . . 3 -n) sends a Sign-On response message to the primary station ( 2 ) in contention period i, and, after sending, waits a feedback period of length T fb for a response from the primary station ( 2 ); and that save for a possible constant factor an approximation for M i is given by: N i *P i−1 /( P i−1 +T fb ) for i =1, 2, (1) such that the respective period lengths P i are determined based on said approximation for M i .