In a first embodiment, multi-speed concatenated packet strings are
transmitted by a first node on a serial bus. To accommodate multi-speed
packets, a speed signal is transmitted immediately prior to the packet. In
a second embodiment, ACK-concatenation is used to allow a node to transmit
a data packet immediately after transmitting an acknowledge signal on the
bus. The data packet need not be related to the ACK packet. In a third
embodiment, a node which receives a first data packet followed by a data
end signal on a child port, concatenates a second data packet onto the
first data packet during retransmission. The second data packet is also
transmitted down the bus in the direction of the node which originally
transmitted the first data packet.
