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.

Date of Patent:
Oct. 29, 1996

Filed:

Feb. 07, 1995
Applicant:
Inventors:

Caitlin B Bestler, Chicago, IL (US);

Khosro M Rabii, Arlington Heights, IL (US);

Assignee:

Zenith Electronics Corporation, Glenview, IL (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
370 17 ; 370 79 ; 370 852 ; 370 857 ; 3701052 ; 3701054 ; 375257 ; 455-51 ; 348 12 ; 348 13 ;
Abstract

Each of a plurality of terminals in a two-way communications system includes a series of counters establishing a plurality of time slots synchronized to a downstream reference parameter. Upstream transmissions are effected by each terminal in one or more of the time slots which are defined by a downloaded message as comprising either a reserved slot or a contention slot. The downloaded message, which may also establish terminal transmission power levels and retransmission backoff algorithms for contention time slots, is derived on the basis of the population of subscriber terminals and the usage of the upstream channel.


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