Claudia K Richards

US Patent:

62371460, May 22, 2001

Filed:

Mar 19, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/820734

Inventors:

Claudia K. Richards - Hampstead NH
William M. Buchanan - Hampstead NH

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies, Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04N 7173

US Classification:

725100

Abstract:

In accordance with the present invention, a cable system allows bidirectional digital communication between a plurality of subscriber Digital Video Home Terminals each located at a different subscriber location and a cable headend via a RF Trunk. The cable headend has a processor for calculating and storing a randomized back-off array for each of the plurality of subscriber Digital Video Home Terminals. Each subscriber Digital Video Home Terminal receives the randomized back-off array for controlling through an algorithm when a Digital Video Home Terminal attempts to send a message to a cable headend. If a collision between the two messages is imminent, the last Digital Video Home Terminal to send the message backs-off and then reattempts to send the message a plurality of times after a random back-off interval of time has passed after each reattempt until no collision would occur with another message generated from a different Digital Video Home Terminal.