Patent ID: 7864796

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in which a computer system performs operations comprising: maintaining at each respective node of a wireless Local Area Network (LAN), two corresponding time periods (NAVs) during which the respective node must refrain from transmitting on a channel of a plurality of traffic channels, wherein each said corresponding NAV is set by detecting a request selected from the group consisting of a reservation request (RRQ) and a reservation response (RRS), and wherein each said corresponding NAV comprises the larger of a RRQ NAV value and a RRS NAV value; declining, at each respective node, to reserve a traffic channel while the corresponding NAV is non-zero; declining, at each said node, to transmit on a channel when said each node detects at least one of the group consisting of the occurrence of a transmission on the channel and said NAV is non-zero; and at least one of resetting a corresponding RRQ NAV while continuing to decrement a corresponding RRS NAV when a reservation is cancelled and resetting a corresponding RRS NAV while continuing to decrement a corresponding RRQ NAV when the reservation time period expires, and wherein said RRQ NAV is overwritten by a Duration field of a RRQ received from another mesh point when said the value of said Duration field is greater than a current value of said RRQ NAV and wherein said RRS NAV is overwritten by a Duration field of a RRS when said the value of said Duration field is greater than a current value of said RRS NAV.