Abstract: A sensor network has a plurality of wireless sensors which transmit to an intermediate receiving device which relays data to a central server. A method is provided for receiving data packets at the intermediate receiving device from a plurality of the transmitting devices. Data packets are sensed on a communication medium at the receiving device and the total traffic intensity of data packets from the transmitting devices is estimated. A detection threshold for data packets is provided and adapted as a function of the total intensity. The receiving device receives data packets with a signal strength above the current detection threshold.

Abstract: A multipurpose data communication network node for interconnecting both ATM and Variable Length (VL) input/output trunks with all combinations of node input versus output trunk connections. The network node includes ATM/VL Receive Adapters and ATM/VL Transmit Adapters, interconnected via a Switching device (44) operating on ATM like packets (i.e. ATM cells) only. The receive adapter includes means (41, 43) for deriving switchable cells from VL traffic possibly including ATM packets and provided over an input VL trunk and means (45, 46) for deriving switchable cells from ATM packets provided on input ATM trunk. The transmit adapter, includes means (47, 48) for reconstructing VL traffic to be fed onto an output VL trunk, and means (49, 50) for reconstructing ATM traffic to be fed onto an output ATM trunk; both means (47, 48) and (49, 50) being fed with switchable cells irrespective of the traffic origin, being it from VL or ATM trunks.

Abstract: Described are methods which preserve the order of the data frames within a data stream if the data stream is switched from one link to another. The first method achieves the order preservation by numbered switch frames that have to be exchanged between the nodes before the link switching is actually performed. In the second method, the switching is only prepared by exchanging special frames which indicate "clean" links. Actual switching takes place by just using an already prepared, i.e., "clean" link.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for supporting the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connectionless service by means of Partial Connections (PCs) in an ATM system (18). These PCs are established between the source users (10, 11, 17) of said ATM system (18) and the destination switching nodes (14) to which the destination users (15) are linked. The use of PCs has no constraints on the size of the domain, because the information the source user (10, 11, 17) inserts in the Virtual Path Identifier/Virtual Channel Identifier (VPI/VCI) field of ATM cells to be transmitted to a destination user (15), is local to the source switching node (12) to which the source user (10, 11, 17) is connected. The information inserted in the VPI/VCI field identifies the PCs along which ATM cells are to be routed.