Importance

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Abstract

Apparatus and method for bus accessing, in a communication system, effective to minimize user to user delay variance is disclosed. The communication system comprises a transmit bus, a receive bus, a plurality of BIUs coupled between the buses, and a head-end coupled between the buses at one end for directing signals from the transmit bus onto the receive bus and further for intermittently alternately transmitting a left sweep or right sweep startup packet onto the receive bus. Upon receipt of the startup packet, each BIU having an information packet to transmit, transmits a beep signal and then subsequently receives its own beep as well as the beeps transmitted by other BIUs. Each BIU determines a transmission ranking for itself according to the number of beeps received before or after receiving its own beep depending on whether the startup packet was respectively a right sweep or left sweep type. The BIUs then transmit information packets in a sequence according to their respectively determined transmission rankings. After information packet transmission, each BIU enters a captive mode in which it refrains from signal transmission until transmission of a subsequent startup packet in response to which no beeps are transmitted. In an alternate embodiment, the transmit and receive buses comprise fiber optic cables and the signals communicated thereon are time division multiplexed.

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First Claim