METHOD FOR ADJUSTING TIME SLOTS IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

摘要

A communication network for providing media arbitration via a communications protocol using consecutive communication slots in a communication network The communication network comprises a plurality of communication nodes, each node arranged for communicating frames of data with the other nodes during a dynamic segment comprising dynamic communication slots with respective communication slot numbers. Each of the plurality of communication nodes includes a time base comprising consecutive timeslots, associated with the dynamic communication slots, each timeslot comprises a transmission action point located such that transmission of each frame of data starts and ends at a transmission action point; a communication slot number controller, for adjusting a communication slot number if no communication is ongoing at the end of a time slot and to suspend adjusting the communication slot number if communication is ongoing at the end of a time slot, and a minislot counter for counting minislots while the incrementation of the communication slot counter is suspended, and a timing unit for determining a duration of a reception of frame, and a control unit for controlling the communication slot number controller to either continue adjusting of the slot number if the determined duration of the reception is above a certain threshold or to continue adjusting of the slot number using the value obtained with the minislot counter if the determined duration of the reception is below a certain threshold, and a transmission suppression unit for suppressing transmission in dynamic slots that follow a dynamic slot in which the determined duration of the reception is below a certain threshold.