Abstract: An Adaptive universal multiple access (AUMA) apparatus and method for collision-free, high efficiency multiple access to a shared media uses a corrector to control access to ports in a hub. The corrector assigns each node an active or passive state and subdivides each transmission cycle into NA sub-cycles, where NA is the number of active nodes in the network. The corrector is configured so that each active node is accessed during one sub-cycle. AUMA may be implemented in repeaters, head-ends, or network interface cards in wired, or wireless networks. To provide efficient utilization AUMA has several mechanisms of automatic adaptation to network topology, lengths of media, node activity, bursty traffic, and speed of transmission. AUMA is compatible with standard Ethernet and can be used in Ethernet environment, including mixed networks, where some nodes are UMA nodes, and the other are standard Ethernet nodes.