Patent ID: 8085700

Claim:
A communications system for providing media arbitration via a communications protocol using consecutive communication slots, the system comprising: a plurality of communication nodes, each node being arranged to communicate frames of data with other nodes of the plurality of communication nodes during a dynamic section associated with communication of dynamic communication slots, and each dynamic communication slot having a communication slot number; wherein each of the plurality of communication nodes is arranged to communicate, in accordance with a time base comprising consecutively elapsing time slots, each consecutive time slot of the base comprising at least two elapsing sub-time slots and a transmission action point located at a boundary between two of the at least two sub-time slots; wherein the each of the plurality of communication nodes is arranged to start and end, transmission of each frame of data at the transmission action point associated with the time base; and a counter arranged to determine a communication slot number operable to: increment the communication slot number in response to determining, at the end of a dynamic communication slot, that no message has been transmitted or received at a first node during the dynamic communication slot; and to suspend incrementing of the communication slot number in response to determining, at the end of the dynamic communication slot, that a message has been transmitted or received at the first node during the dynamic communication slot.