US Patent 7486647 Shared time universal multiple access network

A method of controlling access to a network media by a plurality of stations, the method including determining a number of time slots; determining a number of slot cycles for each time slot, at least one of the time slots having more than one slot cycle; assigning each station one or more slot cycles in one or more time slots; and operating each of the stations by initializing an access timer to time out at the beginning of the station's assigned slot cycle(s) and transmitting data during the assigned slot cycle(s), the access timer being stopped whenever a station transmits over the network, and restarted at the end of transmission.