Patent ID: 7545786

Claim:
In a wireless LAN including at least one access point and a plurality of wireless communication devices associated with the access point, a method for ordering unscheduled service periods initiated by one or more of the wireless communication devices according to a network address comprising the steps of: a first wireless communications device building and storing an ordered list of network addresses associated with a plurality of the wireless communications devices that are receiving packets during a current QoS period; the first wireless communications device examining the stored, ordered list of network addresses to identify a second wireless communications device with a network address that comes immediately before it in the ordered list and to identify a third wireless communications device with a network address that comes immediately after it in the ordered list; the first wireless communications device transmitting a request to the third wireless communications device to accept its network address as the address the third wireless communications device uses to initiate an unscheduled service period; the third wireless communications device receiving the request from the first wireless communications device and responding by accepting the request; the first wireless communications device using the network address of the second wireless communications device to initiate an unscheduled service period; and the third wireless communications device using the network address of the first wireless communications device to initiate an unscheduled service period.