Patent ID: 7301959

Claim:
A communication method using a communication system having at least one master channel, at least one control channel and at least one slave channel, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a request to transmit a first message from a first communications resource, wherein the request includes a destination address that identifies a second communications resource; (b) searching within a periodic time frame comprising multiple time slots for an available time slot in which to transmit the first message on a control channel at frequency cf, wherein the second communications resource is not scheduled to receive or transmit a second message during the available time slot; (c) if the available time slot has been assigned for message request, generating a connect instruction, otherwise, proceeding to step (d); (d) if all available time slots on a control channel have been checked, proceeding to step (g), otherwise, proceeding to step (e); (e) if a baud rate match exists between current time slot and resource, proceeding to step (f), otherwise, checking the next time slot and returning to step (d); (f) if a contention problem exists, checking the next time slot and returning to step (d), otherwise, generating a connection instruction; (g) if all slave channels have been checked, generating a queue instruction, otherwise, proceeding to step (h); (h) if all available time slots on the slave channel have been checked, checking the next slave channel and returning to step (g), otherwise, proceeding to step (i); (i) if a baud rate match exists between current time slot and resource, proceeding to step (j), otherwise, checking the next time slot and returning to step (h); (j) if a contention problem exists, checking the next time slot and returning to step (h), otherwise, generating a connection instruction.