The spectrum allocated for inbound routes is segmented into discrete channels. These channels are pooled and shared among all the remotes in the network. Remote sites contend for these inbound channels on an as-needed basis.

The inbound channels are defined by Type of Service (ToS) and Quality of Service (QoS). ToS is determined by application (telephony, FTP file transfer, etc) and is specified by data rate, FEC rate, modulation type, and occupied bandwidth. QoS determines priority of each application and each site in the contention process for a particular channel. The channel demarcation and QoS/ ToS classification data for the inbound bandwidth resides in the memory of each node in the network. Multiple overlapping channel definitions can be assigned to a given segment of bandwidth. If a smaller channel is in use in a given frequency segment, the larger overlapping channel will register as unavailable to the network until the smaller channel becomes available.

When a remote site has data to transmit to the hub, the SCAN module will automatically turn on a carrier of the appropriate size into an unoccupied channel. When the data transmission is complete, the carrier is turned off, freeing up the channel for use by another remote. The outbound carrier serves as the half circuit from the hub to the remote.

Hub equipment for a STAR network consists of a LinkIP equipped with SCAN, a modulator for the outbound channel, and a demodulator for each allocated inbound channel. In the case of the channel allocation example above, the hub would need 8 demodulators, as that would be the maximum amount of channels that could be in use at anyone time.

Mesh networks can be full mesh, where every node can establish a direct link with any other node in the network, or partial mesh, where each network node can make a direct connection to some of the nodes but not others. LinkIP solutions can be configured to accommodate either architecture or a hybrid of STAR and mesh networks.

The LinkIP can accomplish single hop remote-to-remote connections in one of two ways. The first is to add demodulators to a remote and dedicate the additional demodulators to specific remotes or groups of remotes. The other method is to use the INBOUND SCAN feature.

There are two types of SCAN modes, Outbound SCAN and Inbound SCAN. Outbound SCAN is the process where the SCAN module identifies available channels in a frequency spectrum and activates and deactivates carriers by controlling the modulator. Inbound SCAN monitors carrier activity in an allocated spectrum and tunes a demodulator to acquire a carrier that comes up in a given frequency spectrum that fits a predetermined ToS. When the demodulator has acquired the carrier in question, the LinkIP looks at the IP packets and makes a determination whether that data traffic's destination is its site. If the IP packets are for that site, the LinkIP routes the packets accordingly. If the data is not for that site, the LinkIP releases the demodulator and continues to monitor the spectrum.

Partial and full mesh network configurations accommodated by using Inbound SCAN and / or multiple demodulators. The optimum LinkIP modulator/ demodulator configuration for each site depends on the traffic patterns and volume of the network.