Patent ID: 7760669

Claim:
A slotted ring communications network, comprising: a plurality of nodes, each node having a respective network interface; a plurality of communications links, each link running between a respective pair of nodes of said plurality of nodes, said plurality of links forming a ring network connecting said plurality of nodes; wherein said network interfaces concurrently transmit a plurality of slots around said ring network, each slot capable of carrying a respective single data packet and a respective reservation; wherein each respective said network interface forwards each data packet received by the respective said network interface and destined for another node in the slot in which the data packet was received; wherein any of said plurality of nodes may reserve a first slot, said first slot being a slot which is previously unreserved, by transmitting a reservation in the first slot, said reservation traveling around the ring with the first slot and guaranteeing that, when the first slot returns around the ring to the node which reserved it, the first slot will be free for carrying a data packet originating in the node which reserved the first slot; wherein said reservation is non-renewable by the node which reserved the first slot; and wherein said reservation transmitted in said first slot inhibits every node other than the node which reserved the first slot from transmitting, in the first slot, any data packet originating in the transmitting node and having a destination which follows the node which reserved the first slot.