The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 09, 1985
Filed:
Feb. 14, 1983
Richard G Bahr, Framingham, MA (US);
Thomas C Hogan, Natick, MA (US);
Prime Computer, Inc., Natick, MA (US);
Abstract
A communications network including a plurality of terminals coupled together to provide a unidirectional communications ring. Each of the terminals is adapted to transmit (at an associated fixed data rate) a digital signal to the next downstream terminal on the ring. Each terminal is adapted to receive a digital signal at the data rate associated with the next upstream terminal. In each local terminal, there is a detector for detecting the received synchronization packets and associated data packets are generated for transmission to the next downstream terminal on the ring at a predetermined fixed data rate associated with the local terminal. The data of each transmitted data packet matches bit for bit the data of the corresponding received data packet. The number of bits in the transmit synchronization packet differs from the number of bits in the associated received synchronization packet in a manner so that the data rate for the composite packet formed by the transmitted data packet and associated synchronization data packet corresponds to the transmit data rate for the terminal. The difference varies between predetermined minimum and maximum limits, and may be zero for two terminals having substantially the same transient bit rate.