Patent ID: 7379432
Filing Date: 2008-05-27
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for enabling a plurality of overlapped wireless LAN cells to have contention-free access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising: assigning a first inter-cell contention-free period value to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in said first cell and a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame; transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing the first inter-cell contention-free period value; and receiving the beacon packet at an overlapped station occupying the first cell and the second cell, and forwarding the first inter-cell contention-free period value to member stations in the second cell, to delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after said first inter-cell contention free period.