Method and apparatus for detecting collisions on and controlling access to a communications channel

摘要

A nodal apparatus for sending and receiving digital data in multiple data slots has a transmitter for transmitting a request for multiple data slots during a control minislot. A conflict resolution queue representative of nodal apparatus sending substantially simultaneous requests for transmission resulting in a collision in a minislot is maintained and stored in a memory. A transmission queue representative of nodal apparatus that have successfully transmitted in a minislot and can be queued for data slot transmission is stored in memory. The transmitter sends multiple data slots signals comprising multiple slots of digital data in response to the transmission queue. A receiver receives multiple data slots signals comprising digital data. A high priority transmission queue may also be stored in memory.