Patent ID: 9590692
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04W

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: dividing, by a device in a network, a channel hopping schedule into sets of time slots, wherein the time slots in a particular set are associated with corresponding wireless channels; selecting, by the device, a time slot in the particular set of time slots as an appropriation and defense time slot that can be used by nodes in the network to vie for ownership of the set of time slots; dividing, by the device, the selected time slot into a plurality of sub-slots; assigning, by the device, an appropriation window to one or more of the sub-slots that can be used by a first one of the network nodes to claim ownership of the particular set of time slots; and assigning, by the device, a defense window to one or more of the sub-slots that can be used by the first network node to defend against a claim of ownership of the particular set of time slots by a second one of the network nodes.