Patent ID: 8897268

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a transceiver operable in a wireless personal area network, wherein said transceiver is configured to communicate with a coordinator and at least one receiver; wherein said transceiver and said coordinator use a directional reservation of free channel time blocks using contention-based slots, by selecting contention slots by said transceiver and transmitting a bandwidth reservation request message specifying the requested reservation period using directional transmission pointed towards said coordinator using a directional antenna for reception during contention slots; wherein contention slots are shortened to accommodate only a transmission of a preamble allowing the coordinator to perform antenna training and lock onto a directional signal; wherein the preamble is followed by a directional transmission of a bandwidth reservation request message; and wherein if said coordinator advertises contention periods in a beacon, then said contention periods can be located at the beginning as well as in the middle of free channel time blocks; wherein if multiple senders have succeeded with request transmission, said coordinator selects one of them.