Spectrix Corporation

Carolyn L Heide

Sheldon L Gilbert

Dennis L Director

An apparatus is provided for exchanging data between a central station and a plurality of wireless remote stations on a time division multiple access communication channel. The apparatus includes device for receiving access requests from remote stations of the plurality of remote stations during a first time interval under a contention based protocol and a non-contention based protocol and device for polling for data transfers during a second time period remote stations of the plurality of remote stations providing access requests under non-contention based protocols during the first time period.

Apparatus for exchanging data between a central station and a plurality

A wireless data communications network having a number of users communicating from individual remote stations to a central station over a single optical-infrared channel utilizing a two-stage noncontention-based multiple-access communications protocol. During the first stage of the reservation-based polling protocol, the central station provides a synchronization signal to the remote stations to define the start of a 'reservation request period,' and allocates fixed time slots during which any remote station having a data message to transmit may request access and reserve a portion of the channel for their data messages. During the second stage or 'polled data transfer period,' the central station polls only those remote stations that have a data message to transmit and have requested access to the channel. In response to the poll, the polled remote stations transmit their data message in their previously-reserved data slots. If desired, the central station may also return an acknowledgement signal to the remote stations upon successful reception of each data message.

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Lincolnshire, IL, United States of America

Carolyn L Heide