Patent ID: 7142880

Claim:
A method of communicating in a communication system configured for bidirectional information exchange between a single master terminal unit and a number of slave terminal units on the basis of data packets, wherein: a communication channel of the communication system has a predetermined timeslot structure with timeslots for transmitting either information from the master terminal unit to one or more of the slave terminal units or for transmitting information from a slave terminal unit to the master terminal unit; and wherein, at least in a first type of link: the master terminal unit addresses each slave terminal unit, to which an already existing connection is set up, by repeatedly sending to the slave terminal unit a data packet, addressed to the corresponding slave terminal unit, in accordance with a suitable addressing schedule; and the slave terminal unit is enabled to send back a limited number of data packets carrying useful information to the master terminal unit only on having been addressed by the master terminal unit by receiving a data packet; the method which comprises the following steps, carried out during an existing link: monitoring the communication system for an occurrence of a given operating condition associated with a slave terminal unit, the given operating condition with respect to a slave terminal unit occurring when the slave terminal unit has sent out a data packet carrying useful information in response to a last addressing by the master terminal unit and the data packet is detected by the master terminal unit; and updating the addressing schedule by inserting additional addressing times for the slave terminal unit, on verifying that the given operating condition exists for the slave terminal unit.