persons of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description of the present invention is illustrative only and not in any way limiting . other embodiments of the invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure . the present invention relates to data communications . more particularly , the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for an arbitration and fairness protocol on a serial bus . the invention further relates to machine readable media on which are stored embodiments of the present invention . it is contemplated that any media suitable for retrieving instructions is within the scope of the present invention . by way of example , such media may take the form of magnetic , optical , or semiconductor media . the present invention relates to data structures and the transmission of such data structures . it is contemplated that the present invention may by embodied in various computer and machine readable data structure . furthermore , it is contemplated that data structures embodying the present invention will be transmitted across computer and machine readable media . the present invention further relates to devices that embody the p1394b standard . by way of example , such devices may include those typically used in an audio / video entertainment system , such as home theater receivers , dvd players , computers , or hand - held devices such as cameras and the like . the devices may also include those industrial in nature , such as test and measurement equipment , professional audio / video recording devices , as well as system control or robotic devices found in an industrial environment . the invention also relates to nodes and physical computers , such as state machines . the present invention may be embodied in any collection of nodes linked together through a bus . typically , each device connected to the bus will also have one corresponding node physical layer controller embedded therein . however , a given device may have more than one node , and therefore it follows that one device may have more than one connection to more than one bus . for the discussion that follows , the examples will show the typical situation were one node corresponds to one device . each node may communicate to other nodes in an p1394b - compatible system though links . typically , a cable is used for a link , as is provided for in the p1394b standard . however , any communication means may be employed . by way of example , an infrared , rf , or other wireless system may be used , as well as an optical system . typically , a link is coupled to a node through a port . a port transmits and receives messages and data between the node and link . as is known by one skilled in the art , each node may have more than one port . in the discussion that follows , much of the lower - level detail such as ports and links will be omitted , and the discussion will focus instead on nodes . furthermore , the discussion will focus on nodes connected to a serial bus compatible with the p1394 standard . in accordance with the p1394b standard , a physical node is referred to as a phy . therefore , in the discussion that follows phys that are compatible with the p1394b may be referred to as phys . the following tokens as shown in table 1 will be used in describing the present invention . as mentioned above , in p1394b - compliant nodes , the node that was last transmitting is the boss node . in a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention , nodes , that are receiving also repeat the highest priority request to their neighbors . fig7 is a flowchart of prior art node behavior . in query 700 , a determination is made whether the node boss or not . if the node is not boss , then in act 702 that node will listen on all of its ports and links . in act 704 , the node will then transmit the highest priority request it receives in act 702 . in one preferred embodiment , the priority of the received requests is made according to tables 2 and 3 . if the node is boss , then in act 706 the boss will grant the highest priority request received . in one preferred embodiment , act 706 will occur at the end of a subaction gap , which can occur after transmitting an ack packet , an isochronous packet , a phy response packet , or a phy packet which does not expect a phy response packet . as is known by one skilled in the art , p1394b supports both asynchronous and isochronous communications . arbitration and fairness protocols for both according to the present invention will now be discussed . fig8 is a flowchart showing asynchronous node arbitration according to the present invention . at query 800 the node determines whether or not it needs to arbitrate for the bus . if it does , the node next determines whether its arbitration_enable flag is set in act 802 . if it is , then it may issue a current request as shown in act 804 . if the node &# 39 ; s arbitration_enable flag is reset , then the process moves to act 806 . referring still to fig8 act 806 is key to the present invention . unlike the prior art described above which had a current and next request , one preferred embodiment of the present invention has a current request , and then two “ phases ” of next requests , referred to herein as “ odd ” and “ even ”. it is contemplated that the indication for the arbitration phases will be contained within data structures that will be transmitted throughout the bus . as will be explained shortly , the boss will determine an set which phase the bus is in , either odd or even . therefore , at act 806 , if the bus is in the odd phase , the node will issue a next_even request , meaning that the node wishes to arbitrate in the next phase , which will be even . if the bus is in an even phase , then the node will issue a next_odd request , meaning that the node would like to arbitrate in the next phase , which will be odd . if the node does not wish to arbitrate in the current phase , then in act 808 the node will issue a none . as is appreciated by one skilled in the art , this forces a node to continuously broadcast its intentions . furthermore , as mentioned in fig7 nodes are also repeating the highest priority they receive . this constant communication has certain advantages , as will be seen shortly . fig9 a is a flowchart of a fairness protocol according to the present invention . in this example , the boss will first issue a arb_reset_odd in act 900 , forcing the bus into an odd phase . the boss will then grant all next_odd requests that have been queued up as well as any new or active current requests in act 902 . referring still to fig9 a , the phase of the arbitration interval will be advanced in act 904 . as is appreciated by one normally skilled in the art , this advancing may take place by any means . by way of non - limiting example , such means may include a timer , or enabling the boss node to advance the fairness interval by allowing the boss node to determine when advancement is proper . the process repeats again for the even phase . the boss will issue a arb_reset_even to the bus in act 906 . in act 908 , the boss will then grant all next_even request queued up on the bus as well as any new or active current requests . finally , the phase of the arbitration interval will be advanced in act 910 . as is appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art , the process shown and described in fig9 a may be repeated as often as necessary . fig9 b is a flowchart of a fairness protocol for boss nodes according to the present invention in which timers are used . in this example , the boss will first issue a arb_reset_odd in act 912 , forcing the bus into an odd phase and will start a timer set to expire at the worst case round - trip time on the bus . the boss will then grant all next_odd requests that have been queued up as well as any new or active current requests in act 914 . as mentioned earlier , these next_odd requests were issued by nodes which were not able to arbitrate in the previous even phase because their arbitration_enable flag was reset , meaning that they had used up their arbitration budget . referring still to fig9 b , if there are no more next_odd or current requests to grant and the timer has expired , then the boss will issue a arb_reset_even to the bus in act 916 and start a timer as in act 900 . in act 918 , the boss will then grant all next_even request queued up on the bus as well as any new or active current requests . as is appreciated by one skilled in the art , these requests were generated during the time acts 900 - 902 were being performed by nodes that had used up their fairness budget . as is appreciated by one skilled in the art , the protocol described in fig9 b eliminates the need to rename next requests to current as was necessary in the prior art . the isochronous embodiment of the present invention is similar to the asynchronous version , except that there is no current request . fig1 is a flowchart of an isochronous embodiment of the present invention . in query 1000 , the node determines whether it wishes to arbitrate in the next phase . if it does , it issues a request in act 1000 according to the present phase of the bus . the node will issue a isoch_x request , where x = to the next state . for example , if the current phase is odd , then the node will issue an isoch_even request , and visa - versa for the even phase . if the node does not wish to arbitrate for the next phase , then the node will issue an isoch_none request in act 1000 . it is contemplated in the present invention that systems will use both isochronous and asynchronous protocols . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention , nodes can issue both isochronous and asynchronous requests . in such a system , isochronous requests will take priority over asynchronous requests during special intervals called the “ isochronous phase ”. during this time , a boss will service only isochronous requests , then service asynchronous requests after all isochronous requests have been serviced . while embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown and described , it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein . the invention , therefore , is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims .