MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK WITH COMBINED CONTENTION AND RESERVATION MODE ACCESS

摘要

Channel access for communicating a data packet over a multiple access communication network with a forward channel and a multiple access reverse channel which efficiently handles a mix of short message and long data transfer communication type traffic is provided by combined contention and reservation mode access to the multiple reverse channel. A forward channel transmission apparatus or base station broadcasts a forward channel control packet associated with a subsequent transmission window which channel control packet includes an indication of contention or reservation mode for the subsequent transmission window and an identifier identifying a device to be granted reservation mode access to the reverse channel. The forward channel transmission apparatus allocates access to reservation mode transmissions responsive to reservation requests transmitted by reverse channel transmission apparatus or subscriber devices having data packets to transmit which exceed the data packet size which may be transmitted within the constraints of a contention mode burst. For short length data packets, the reverse channel transmission apparatus transmits the data packet in a contention window rather than transmitting a reservation request to obtain reservation mode access to the reverse channel for transmission of the data packet. The base station further transmits an acknowledgment of successfully received data packets allowing the subscriber device to submit for retransmission data packets which are not successfully transmitted without the need to involve higher layer error recovery mechanisms. The broadcast channel control packet is associated with a subsequent transmission window so that the reverse channel transmission apparatus may be provided with slow receive to transmit switching time hardware.