Patent ID: 6954800

Claim:
A method of enhancing network transmission between stations on a priority-enabled frame-based communications network, the communications network having multiple transmit priorities and transmitting frames such that a network access time to transmit a frame of a lower transmit priority is longer than a network access time to transmit a frame of a higher transmit priority, the number of transmit priorities being fixed and all stations being capable of transmitting frames at any transmit priority, for each station the method comprising: establishing an initial transmit priority for each frame to be transmitted; maintaining a set of initial transmit priorities assigned to frames transmitted on the communications network; establishing a set of final transmit priorities containing highest possible priorities, one final transmit priority being associated with each member of the set of initial transmit priorities, such that a highest initial transmit priority is assigned to a highest possible priority, a next highest initial transmit priority is assigned to a next highest possible priority, and so forth; and transmitting ordered frames onto the communications network, each frame using a final transmit priority associated with the initial transmit priority established for the each frame.