Access method for broadband and narrowband networks

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention is directed to an access method that allows an end-user device (mobile or stationary) a) to place stand-alone requests for access to a shared communications resource for transmission thereto of one or more information packets arriving at an empty buffer of the end user-device, and b) to piggyback the requests with packet transmissions for subsequent information packets arriving at a non-empty buffer of the end-user device.
As used therein, the term "standalone requests" refers to requests that are transmitted by themselves i.
e.
, that are not included in information packets, as is the case for piggybacked requests.
Stand-alone and piggybacked requests may be transmitted, for example, as data symbols represented by a single bit or a string of bits.
In accordance with the principles of the invention, a stand-alone request from one end-user device competes for access to the shared communications resource with other comparable stand-alone requests from other end-user devices that are also coupled to the shared communications resource.
This competition for access is hereinafter referred to as "contention".
Because of this contention, overlapping transmissions of stand-alone requests from two or more contending end-user devices may result in a collision.
In an embodiment of the principles of the invention, a scheduler receives information packets and data symbols by listening to transmission channels of the shared communications resource that is coupled to the end-user devices.
The scheduler is also designed to grant permission to end-user devices to access the shared communications resource based on access priority codes, such as the Quality-of-Service (QoS) parameters called for by the application associated with each active end-user device.
Specifically, the scheduler announces during a transmission period, such as a time slot, the identification number of the end-user device selected to transmit its information packet during a later transmission period