Importance

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Abstract

A communication system has a plurality of stations which communicate data in a data frame having a plurality of slots, wherein the plurality of slots are new message minislots NMS, expansion minislots EMS, and data slots DS. A master station determines a range parameter R which is based upon a number of slave stations transmitting reservation requests in a data frame. The master station also determines a slot parameter MAP according to a number of reservation requests in a queue waiting to be processed by the master station. The slot parameter MAP defines the new message minislots, the expansion minislots, and the data slots in an upstream data frame. The master station transmits the range parameter R and the slot parameter MAP to a plurality of slave stations. Each slave station independently determines a random transmission parameter RN. Each slave station transmits to the master station (i) a new reservation request in a new message minislot if its random transmission parameter RN corresponds to a new message minislot, (ii) an old reservation request in an expansion minislot if assigned an expansion minislot in the slot parameter MAP, and (iii) data in a data slot if assigned a data slot by the master station.

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