Patent ID: 7046697

Claim:
A multiport repeater (MR) for fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) data transmissions, whose inter-repeater backplane interface signals comprise: an inter-repeater data and control bus, a backplane request bus, and a collision detection control signal; the backplane request bus including a request output signal and at least one request input signal for implementing a stack backplane with MR stack units and the connection of the MR arbitration repeater stack units being such that: the request input signal detects in parallel whether any repeater stack unit makes a request, obtains an inter-repeater bus signal and sends out the request input signal; once the inter-repeater bus signal is obtained, the repeater stack unit making the request starts to receive emerging data; and any of the request input signals also detects request actions at the same time, returning the request from each of the repeater stack units for the inter-repeater bus, and when a backplane collision occurs the rest of the repeater stack units detect the occurrence of the collision through the backplane collision bus.