Patent ID: RE40985

Claim:
A method comprising advertising service offerings in a wireless communication system including at least one device wherein a first device performs the steps of: broadcasting a message of a first type, choosing a value for a time limit, listening and waiting for a message from a second device, if no message has been received until elapse of said time limit, continuing with the step of broadcasting a message of a first type, otherwise analyzing the message received from said second device and if message includes valid information about said first device, continuing with the step of choosing a value for a time limit, and broadcasting a message of a second type, if said message received from said second device does not include valid service description about said first device, wherein the first device maintains a counter for each service description, and further comprising the step of incrementing the counter for service descriptions broadcast with a message, and further comprising the step of analyzing counter values and deriving a value indicating a distance between the first device and any of the other known devices.