Patent ID: 6970905

Claim:
For a diplex communications network exchanging data packets with a plurality of subscriber stations, a communications interface for the subscriber stations comprising: a communications port for connection to the network, a modem having an address, coupled to the communications port, a processor coupled to the modem, for processing data packets having identifier information relating the data packets to the address, the processor further comprising a master communications interface mode in which the communications interface serves as a master communications interface for downloading data packets from the network and uploading data packets to the network, and a slave communications interface mode in which the communications interface serves as a slave communications interface for downloading data packets from the network and uploading data packets to the master communications interface, the communications interfaces switching between master mode and slave mode responsive to a priority queue of upload demands from the plurality of communications interfaces, and a supplementary communications link, for communicating with one or more other communications interfaces, wherein when a plurality of communications interfaces are connected in parallel one of the plurality of communications interfaces is in master mode and the others of the plurality of communications interfaces are in slave mode.