US 4,581,735 patent (continued)

Responsive thereto, a logical interpretation may be made as to whether the forward path is busy or is not busy. If the path is not busy, the packet may be written on the path by overwriting any signal thereon including the busy field. If the path is busy, the station may defer the writing until the path is detected as not busy. In order to accommodate different types of traffic, the head station may write different start cycle codes. For example, a start-of-voice code may enable stations to transmit voice packets; a start-of-data code may enable stations to transmit data packets, etc. for the different types of traffic. Further, the start cycle codes may be written in a regular, e.g., periodic, fashion to mitigate deleterious effects, such as speech clipping. Still further, the last station on the forward path may write end cycle codes in packets on a reverse path for communicating control information to the head station. Responsive to the control information, the head station may modify the cycle to permit the respective stations to, for example, transmit more than one packet per cycle or to vary the number of packet time slots, which are allocated to each of the different types of traffic.

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[slide51] They went on and described all of this, the serious effects that occur, et cetera.