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:
Sep. 15, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 20, 1996
Ingrid Zulma Van de Voorde, Wilrijk, BE;
Jan Lieven Bert De Groote, Berchem, BE;
Gert Van der Plas, Merchtem, BE;
Alcatel N.V., BH Rijswijk, NL;
Abstract
The method is used in an optical transmission network with a plurality of terminal stations (TS1-TSn) connected to a central station (CS) via a tree-like connection structure, to determine a signal transmission delay time between one terminal station (TSi) and the central station. The terminal stations are adapted to send cells containing information signals to the central station in dedicated time slots. The method consists of sending a start signal (start CR) from the central station to the terminal station (TSi), after a first predetermined time interval after the receipt of that start signal sending a ranging signal from the terminal station to the central station, after a second predetermined time interval after the sending of the start signal sending an inhibit signal from the central station to the terminal stations to indicate that no cells may be transmitted during an idle time window; determining in the central station the signal transmission delay time from the contents of the predetermined ranging signal received by the central station during the idle time window. The ranging signal either has an amplitude which is smaller than the information signals contained in the cells in order not to disturb the information signals when the ranging signal is transmitted outside the idle time window, or has a similar amplitude, in which case error codes are included in the cells in order to recover possible disrupted cells.