Subsidiary station capable of automatically adjusting an internal delay

Abstract

A repeater station receives from a preceding station a first downward signal of a frame period, with a propagation delay. The repeater transmits a second downward signal to a succeeding station, which second signal is a delayed repeat of the first downward signal. A first delay circuit in the repeater gives the first downward signal a fixed delay which is equal to an integral submultiple of the frame period minus the propagation delay and precesses the second downward signal to include the fixed delay. The first downward signal includes a reference signal and a number signal which is representative of the repeater station. A first detector detects the reference signal. When a second detector detects the number signal, an internal delay circuit gives the detected reference signal an internal delay which depends on the number signal and produces a delayed reference signal. Responsive to the delayed reference signal, a multiplexer processes a first upward signal from the succeeding station into a processed signal. A second delay circuit gives the processed signal the fixed and produces a second upward signal to be received by the preceding station with the propagation delay. The repeater station may also be used as a terminal station.