Patent ID: 8824493

Claim:
A media access control method for controlling access by a first user station of a bus system to a first channel and a second channel of the bus system utilized jointly by a plurality of user stations, the method comprising: determining, by first processing circuitry of the first user station and in accordance with a predefined protocol, whether an enable interval has commenced, wherein: (I) (a) the enable interval is predefined as a time window or a part of the time window within a regularly repeating time-window structure and the commencement of the enable interval is identified by the predefinition, or (b) the commencement of the enable interval is identified with the aid of bit-by-bit arbitration of the first channel; and (II) during the enable interval, only the first user station is enabled to transmit on the first and second channels; transmitting, by the first processing circuitry, an access control signal to second processing circuitry of the first user station during the enable interval to enable access to the second channel; while receiving the access control signal at the second processing circuitry, conditionally transmitting, by the second processing circuitry, first data on the second channel during the enable interval.