Patent ID: 8005111

Claim:
A method of communication based upon a real-time data traffic in a collision-avoiding communication network, comprising: prior to commencing a cyclically recurring real-time data traffic on a communication network, wherein the real-time data traffic has real-time messages communicated in one or more of a number of cycles within a macrocycle; (a) determining data paths for routing the cyclically recurring real-time data traffic for the real-time messages in the communication network ; (b) scheduling the cyclically recurring real-time data traffic based on the data paths determined to establish send times for the real-time messages, wherein the scheduling further comprises subdividing the macrocycle into k phases (Phase 1 , Phase 2 , . . . Phase k ) wherein k corresponds to the number of successive cycles of the macrocycle, where k is a natural number greater than 1, and wherein each phase (Phase 1 , Phase 2 , . . . Phase k ) of the k phases defines the number of times a real-time message allocated to that phase is transmitted, such that a Phase 1 message is transmitted every 1 cycle of the macrocycle, a Phase 2 , message is transmitted every 2 cycles of the macrocycle, continuing to a Phase k message transmitted every kth cycle of the macrocycle; and (c) allocating each of the real-time messages based on a reduction specified for each message to one of the k phases so that each of the real-time messages is sent every kth cycle in accordance with its reduction and phase allocation (Phase 1 , Phase 2 , . . . Phase k ), rather than every cycle in the macrocycle.