Patent ID: 7110380
Filing Date: 2006-09-19
Classification: H04W,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for sharing bandwidth by a plurality of devices in at least one of a wireless personal area network and a local area network, comprising the steps of: sending from a coordinator a beacon including coordination information to each of the plurality of devices, the beacon including for each of the plurality of devices receiving the beacon by the plurality of devices; storing the device-unique start time indicator and the transmission duration in a memory of each preselected device; sleeping after the storing step such that the plurality of devices are not receiving data and not transmitting data while sleeping; transmitting, by each of the plurality of devices, at respective times corresponding to the device-unique start time stored in the memory of each preselected device and for the transmission duration stored in the memory of the preselected device; returning to sleep, after the transmitting step such that the plurality of devices are not receiving data and are not transmitting data while sleeping; and waking up at a predetermined time such that another beacon can be received by the plurality of devices, wherein each device-unique start time and each transmission duration is set so that only one of the plurality of devices is transmitting at any one time during a period of time including each of the exclusive guaranteed time slots, and the shared time slot is used as at least one of a slot cycle time division multiple access period managed by the coordinator for additional transmissions by the plurality of devices, a polling period managed by the coordinator for additional transmissions by the plurality of devices, and a reservation period for reserving time by the plurality of devices in a subsequent guaranteed time slot.