Method and system for providing a modified timed division multiple access (TDMA) for reduced delay

• US 20070076655A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Herrmann, Falk, Manjeshwar, Arati
• Granted Patent: US 7,835,383 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1682 Allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users, e.g. concentrated multiplexers, statistical multiplexers
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1694 Allocation of channels in TDM/TDMA networks, e.g. distributed multiplexers Passive Optical Networks H04Q11/0062
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40156 by using dedicated slots associated with a priority level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/413 with random access, e.g. carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection [CSMA-CD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0808 using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]

Abstract

A method for shared access of a communication channel is provided, which includes dividing access to the communication channel into a plurality of time slots, and allocating the time slots, at least partially, based on a priority of use of the communication channel.

Claims

1. A method for shared access of a communication channel, the method comprising:

dividing access to the communication channel into a plurality of time slots; and

allocating the time slots, at least partially, based on a priority of use of the communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of use includes transmitting one of a high priority message and low priority message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of use includes transmitting a supervision message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of use includes transmitting a back channel message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of use includes transmitting an alarm message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating a subset of the time slots as exclusive.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

resolving a contention for a non-exclusive time slot using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) communications protocol, where the contention for the time slot arises if more than one device attempts to access a particular time slot.

8. A network comprising:

at least two node elements configured to communicate on a shared communication channel, wherein the at least two nodes are configured to communicate a predefined message in a predefined time slot.

9. The network of claim 8, wherein the predefined message includes a high priority message and a low priority message.

10. The network of claim 8, wherein the predefined message is a supervision message.

11. The network of claim 8, wherein the predefined message is a back channel message.

12. The network of claim 8, wherein the predefined message is an alarm message.

13. The network of claim 8, wherein the predefined time slot is allocated, at least partially, based on a priority of use of the shared communication channel.

14. The network of claim 8, where the at least two node elements are configured to refrain from accessing the shared communication channel during a time slot exclusively reserved for another node, and to resolve a contention for a non-exclusively reserved time slot using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) communications protocol.

15. A method for shared access of a communication channel, the method comprising:

dividing access to the communication channel into a plurality of time slots;

allocating the time slots, at least partially, based on a priority of use of the communication channel;

allocating a subset of the time slots as exclusive; and

resolving a contention for a non-exclusive time slot using a multiple access communications protocol, wherein the contention for the time slot arises if more than one device attempts to access a particular time slot.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the subset of the time slots are allocating using a Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA) communications protocol.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the multiple access communications protocol is a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) communications protocol.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein subset of the time slots are allocating using a Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA) communications protocol and the multiple access communications protocol is a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) communications protocol.

19. The method claim 18, wherein the time slots are configurable in size.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the size is configurable according to the priority of use of the communication channel.