Patent ID: 8526430

Claim:
A multi-hop communication method based on distributed medium access control, comprising: generating a beacon frame which includes a first multi-hop information element and transmitting the beacon frame to a neighboring device so as to search for a route to an external device which does not belong to a beacon group; receiving a third multi-hop information element from the neighboring device, the third multi-hop information element generated based on a second multi-hop information element, the second multi-hop information element generated by the external device; and setting up a multi-hop route to the external device in accordance with the third multi-hop information element to transmit data to the external device, wherein each of the first multi-hop information element, the second multi-hop information element, and the third multi-hop information element includes a field for indicating an initial source of the route, a field for indicating a final destination of the route, a field for indicating a hop count, and a field for indicating an amount of required resources, and wherein each of the second multi-hop information element and the third multi-hop information element further includes a field for indicating resource allocation information, and wherein the amount of required resources is a number of required medium access slots, and the resource allocation information is information about allocated time slots, and wherein the third multi-hop information element includes the resource allocation information included in the second multi-hop information element.