A method comprising: by a first wireless device, performing passive discovery operations on a discovery channel by the wireless device during a discovery window of a periodic discovery interval, the passive discovery operations enabling discovery by neighbor wireless devices which are actively discovering, and discovering neighbor wireless devices passively; by the first wireless device, switching from the discovery channel to a data channel when the discovery window of the periodic discovery interval ends; by the first wireless device, immediately after the switching, sending a data window announcement packet on the data channel during a data window of the periodic discovery interval; by the first wireless device, sending data on the data channel during the data window of the periodic discovery interval following transmission of the data announcement packet; by a second wireless device joined to the first wireless device, adjusting a starting time of a discovery window of the second wireless device to be the same as a starting time of the discovery of the first wireless device; in response to not receiving the data window announcement packet from the first wireless device within a predefined minimum data window, extending a size of a data window of the second wireless device to a predefined maximum window, said predefined maximum window being less than the discovery interval minus the discovery window minus twice the channel switch time; in response to receiving the data window announcement packet from the first wireless device within the predefined minimum data window, synchronizing an internal time stamp of the second wireless device with the first wireless device and setting the size of the data window to the data window size of the first wireless device; switching to the data channel of the first wireless device when the discovery window of the second wireless device ends; and sending and receiving data packets on the data channel until the data window expires. by a first wireless device, performing passive discovery operations on a discovery channel by the wireless device during a discovery window of a periodic discovery interval, the passive discovery operations enabling discovery by neighbor wireless devices which are actively discovering, and discovering neighbor wireless devices passively; by the first wireless device, switching from the discovery channel to a data channel when the discovery window of the periodic discovery interval ends; by the first wireless device, immediately after the switching, sending a data window announcement packet on the data channel during a data window of the periodic discovery interval; by the first wireless device, sending data on the data channel during the data window of the periodic discovery interval following transmission of the data announcement packet; by a second wireless device joined to the first wireless device, adjusting a starting time of a discovery window of the second wireless device to be the same as a starting time of the discovery of the first wireless device; in response to not receiving the data window announcement packet from the first wireless device within a predefined minimum data window, extending a size of a data window of the second wireless device to a predefined maximum window, said predefined maximum window being less than the discovery interval minus the discovery window minus twice the channel switch time; in response to receiving the data window announcement packet from the first wireless device within the predefined minimum data window, synchronizing an internal time stamp of the second wireless device with the first wireless device and setting the size of the data window to the data window size of the first wireless device; switching to the data channel of the first wireless device when the discovery window of the second wireless device ends; and sending and receiving data packets on the data channel until the data window expires.