Patent ID: 7965734

Claim:
A method for preventing collision in a terminal device of a data network, the terminal device having a network transceiver and a processor having a first program to cause said processor to transmit a packet of data using said network transceiver in accordance with a data transmission protocol, the method comprising: using a second program in said processor to listen to said data network via said network transceiver to determine, in accordance with said protocol, a time to transmit data; at said time, using said first program in said processor to begin transmission of a packet by sending data to a transmit signal input of said network transceiver in accordance with said protocol; determining a collision by detecting, at a hardware level associated with said network transceiver, a received signal on a receive signal output of said transceiver after said processor has begun transmission of said packet but before said data has been sent from said processor to said network transceiver; and avoiding said collision by preventing transmission of said packet in response to said detecting.