Patent ID: 7433370

Claim:
A method of transmitting data in a networked system including a shared transmission medium, comprising: generating a plurality of virtual packets each containing information for delivery to at least one selected terminal in the networked system via the shared medium; generating a control field having control information for controlling the delivery of the virtual packets; and forming a physical packet for transmission across the shared transmission medium, the physical packet including the control field and the plurality of virtual packets such that overhead associated with the control field and medium access is amortized over the plurality of virtual packets, the physical packet having a map field for allowing a receiving terminal to identify and decode only those virtual packets within the physical packets addressed to the receiving terminal and including a plurality of entries each controlling the delivery of a corresponding one of the virtual packets, each entry including a first field for identifying the selected terminal for delivery of the corresponding virtual packet, a second field indicating a size of the corresponding virtual packet, and a third field for reconstructing a larger data structure from the corresponding virtual packet.