VERFAHREN ZUR ZEITSCHLITZVERWALTUNG UND STRUKTUR EINES AUFWÄRTSSIGNALRAHMENS

The present invention relates to a time slot management method for use in a time division multiple access system that couples a line termination via a tree-like network to a plurality of network terminations. This method comprises the step of at first transmitting by the line terminator at least one grant towards a network terminator in order to allocate at least one adjacent subsequent corresponding upstream time-slot to said network terminator. A second step is receiving the at least one grant by said network termination from the line termination followed by the step of recognising if the at least one grant is associated to the network termination and the step of transmitting upon recognition of the at least one grant being associated to said network termination by the network terminator, overhead data in the first time slot of the at least one time slot and payload data in each potential adjacent subsequent time slot of at least one time-slot allocated to said network terminator.