Slotted arbitration without time jitter in a table driven protocol

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the principals of the present invention a media access protocol is provided which combines the fixed time slot length of the table driven proportional access system with certain predetermined slots therein having a limited slotted arbitration capability.
For certain users of the common digital bus there will be a simple assignment of a specific time period to a specific user.
For certain other predetermined time periods of the total frame time, there is a slotted arbitration among two or more assigned users which occurs during a fixed time period.
This time period is of sufficient length to allow the longest of the assigned prioritized users to complete its transmission plus a number of delta times as required to accomplished the arbitration among the competing users within the specific time period.
This combination provides for a system which allows certain of the competing users access during an arbitrated time period, while keeping the overall total time for access by all users to a fixed time period thereby eliminating the time jitter ordinarily associated with a slotted timing variation.
The advantages of the inventive system will be understood more fully from the following description in combination with reference to the accompanying drawings.