Patent ID: 7924867

Claim:
A communications network comprising a plurality of transmitting stations and receiving stations for transmitting and receiving signals, the transmitting stations being adapted for transmitting a data signal as a series of data packets, wherein a data packet is scheduled to be transmitted by a transmitting station by use of an available transmission resource, and the receiving stations being adapted for transmitting a reservation indicator for reception by transmitting stations, wherein the reservation indicator transmitted by a receiving station, in the plurality of receiving stations. in response to a reception without unacceptable interference of a first data packet from a first transmitting station, in the plurality of transmitting stations, indicates to the first transmitting station that the receiving station has received the first data packet without unacceptable interference, and indicates to a second transmitting station, in the plurality of transmitting stations, intending to transmit a data packet and also hearing the reservation indicator that a data transmission resource has been reserved by the receiving station for reception of the next data packet of a data signal from the first transmitting station transmitting the data signal and that the data transmission resource is not allowed to be used by the second transmitting station for a transmission of a data packet by the second transmitting station, and wherein not hearing the reservation indicator by the second transmitting station indicates to the second transmitting station that a data transmission resource has not been reserved and can be used by the second transmitting station for transmitting the data packet or indicates to the first transmitting station that the last data packet transmitted by the first transmitting station has not been received with acceptable interference from the first receiving station, wherein each data packet is transmitted in a fixed data time slot of a plurality of data time slots within a time frame of a series of subsequent frames, wherein an indicator time slot is assigned to each data time slot of each frame, and wherein the reservation indicator transmitted by the receiving station in an indicator time slot indicates, whether the associated data time slot has been reserved in a subsequent time frame for transmission of the next data packet by the transmitting station, the associated data time slot in the subsequent time frame representing the data transmission resource, and wherein not hearing a reservation indicator in an indicator time slot indicates to the second transmitting station that the associated data time slot in the subsequent time frame can be used by the second transmitting station for transmitting a data packet.