US Patent 7873739 Voting mechanism for transmission schedule enforcement

Method and systems of transmission schedule enforcement in a hub-based network is provided. Method includes receiving guardian messages from one or more of a plurality of nodes, implementing a voting function, voting the received guardian messages using the voting function, and when a clear winner of the received guardian messages is detected, enabling a port indicated by the clear winner to propagate. The guardian messages are received outside of TDMA communications. The guardian messages contain information pertaining to the next slot or slots to transmit.