Patent ID: 6920113

Claim:
A method for communicating between a plurality of nodes of a communication system in which a series of fixed-length frames pass between the nodes of the system comprising: provisioning the communication system, including allocating in each frame a fixed part, said fixed part including a first part of the frame for passing control information between the nodes, a second part for passing data streams over a plurality of dynamically allocated channels between the nodes, and a third part that is allocated for fixed-rate channels between the nodes; at a first node in the system, (1) receiving a communication request for a dynamically allocated channel between a second node and a third node including receiving request data from the second node in the first part of a received frame, (2) allocating a portion of the second part of the frames to said dynamically allocated channel, and (3) broadcasting a response to the request including transmitting control data in the first part of a frame; and at the second node, (1) receiving the control data transmitted by the first node, (2) determining the portion of the second part of each of the frames that is allocated to said dynamically allocated channel, and (3) sending a data over said dynamically allocated channel to the third node, including passing data in said portion of the second part of each of a series of frames.