Patent · US Expired

Hub controller for providing deterministic access to CSMA local area network

US5355375A · kind A · utility

90Cited by
21References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 18, 1993
Grant dateOct 11, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 18, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L12/417
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for deterministic access to a carrier-sense-multiple-access (CSMA) or carrier-sense-multiple-access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) local area network (LAN) alters the basic indeterminate contention algorithm of the CSMA/CD protocol LAN within a hub controller. The hub controller includes media control logic that can selectively raise a pseudo carrier control signal to each port, thereby inhibiting any CSMA/CD protocol LAN transmissions by that port. In this way, the media control logic allows the hub controller to control which of the multiple ports will be allowed to contend for access to a common internal bus within the hub controller and for how long. A variety of different deterministic contention algorithms can be implemented by the hub controller, such as sequential polling, interrupt allocation, or a combination of deterministic contention algorithms with the normal CSMA/CD indeterminate contention algorithm.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.