Patent ID: 8340056

Claim:
A method for implementing communications in a railroad communications system having a base station radio and remote radios, the remote radios including a mobile radio and a wayside radio, comprising: assigning a common radio communications channel for allowing a remote radio to connect with the base station radio using a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) communications protocol; assigning a local radio communications channel for allowing communications between the base station radio and the remote radios and between the remote radios, wherein communications on the local channel utilizes a selected one of fixed time division multiple access (FTDMA) and dynamic time division multiple access (DTDMA) communications protocols; and wherein communications on the local channel are organized as superframes, wherein each superframe includes a FTDMA cycle comprising a plurality of time slots each for transmitting a packet and at least one DTDMA cycle comprising a plurality of slots each for transmitting a packet.