摘要 |
A method of operating a repeater for a packet-based data transmission system wherein the repeater has a receiving port associated with a buffer whereby packets received at the port are temporarily stored before they are onwardly transmitted and wherein the repeater performs a contention resolution process such that if an attempted onward transmission of a packet is prevented by virtue of contention with a prior or an existing transmission, a subsequent attempt at transmission of that packet is delayed for a time which is likely to be substantially greater than a selected minimum time. The method includes examining a received packet to determine whether the packet is a multi-media packet, and giving the packet a higher priority in the contention resolution process such that if the packet is not transmitted onwardly owing to contention with a prior transmission, a fresh attempt at transmission of the packet is made on the expiry of the selected minimum time.
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