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A novel approach for a very flexible and robust field area network (FAN) was developed. To fulfill the particular timing constraints given by the communication of the highly dynamic processes at lower FAN levels, the packetbased approach uses discrete multitone for parallel access to many devices. This paper gives a description of the packet based approach. Several aspects of the medium access organization, like carrier management, individual bandwidth allocation and gain control, are described. The suitability of this novel concept is proved with a prototype system implementation.

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