Patent ID: 7720007

Claim:
A transmission timing control apparatus included in a plurality of nodes constituting a telecommunications system, comprising: a transmission timing determining circuit for receiving a state variable signal transmitted from neighboring one of the plurality of nodes to one of the plurality of nodes which is of interest, the state variable signal being affected by a phase representative of a data transmission timing of the neighboring node, said transmission timing determining circuit varying a state of a phase of the node of interest according to a rule to thereby determine a data transmission timing of the node of interest, the rule changing a rhythm of a nonlinear oscillation of the phase of the node of interest in response to an impulse signal received from the neighboring node; a node information transmitter/receiver for transmitting source identification information particular to the node of interest and source node information of a data signal received by the node of interest, and for receiving node information transmitted from the neighboring node; a neighboring node information collecting circuit operative in response to the source identification information and the source node information for collecting neighboring node information of the neighboring node having received the data signal; and a collision determination circuit for comparing a number of the neighboring nodes to which said transmission timing determining circuit is related as to control of the data transmission timing with a number of nodes based on the neighboring node information, and for determining a probability of a collision between data transmissions, wherein said collision determination circuit determines that data transmissions are liable to collide when the number of nodes based on the neighboring node information is greater than the number of neighboring nodes related to the control of the data transmission timing.