Patent ID: 7215652

Claim:
A communication network control method for a communication network including a hub and a plurality of user nodes, said method comprising steps of: transmitting a sequence of frames from the hub to the plurality of user nodes at a fixed frame rate F, each frame in the sequence of frames including a respective burst time plan; transmitting a respective data burst in a frame time period from each of the user nodes to the hub after receiving each burst time plan in the sequence of frames from the hub, the respective data burst from each of the user nodes being delayed by a respective remote delay R fsdn for each of the user nodes, and the respective data burst from each of the user nodes including data in at least one time slot of the frame time period according to the respective burst time plan in the sequence of frames from the hub, wherein each data burst from each of the user nodes is received at the hub such that the start of the frame time period for each data burst occurs simultaneously at the hub, and the start of the frame time period for each data burst occurs a hub delay H fsd after a start of a frame in a predetermined frame in the sequence of frames from the hub.