Gte Service Corporation

Thomas Brand

Richard P LaRowe, Jr

David Wacker

A communications protocol that is used in a network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices includes a synchronization beacon frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network, a token frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices, a status response frame that is transmitted by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device, and a data frame. The synchronization beacon frame includes a beacon identifier that identifies a frame as the synchronization beacon frame, and a hub identifier that identifies an address of the hub device. The token frame includes a data portion that schedules a data transmission on the network, and a status response portion that schedules a status response transmission on the network. The status response frame includes a data transmission field that indicates whether a corresponding one of the peripheral devices has data to transmit to the hub device. The data frame includes data transmitted between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

Communications protocol in a wireless personal area network

A personal area network includes a plurality of peripheral devices attached to the network, at least one attaching peripheral device requesting to attach to the network, and a hub device connected to the network and communicating with the plurality of peripheral devices. The hub device receives the attachment request from the attaching peripheral device, provides the attaching peripheral device with attachment approval and a time-out interval, and detaches the attaching peripheral device when the attaching peripheral device fails to communicate with the hub device for a period of time equal to the time-out interval.

Wireless personal area network with automatic detachment

A network includes a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices. The hub device includes a send token register, a receive token register, and a communication protocol engine. The send token register contains tokens for allocation of output data bandwidth. The receive token register contains tokens for allocation of input data bandwidth. The communication protocol engine alternately transmits the tokens from the send and receive token registers to ensure a split of the output and input data bandwidth on the network.

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Reading, MA, United States of America

Thomas Brand