Patent ID: 8036241

Claim:
A method for contention resolution in a communications network, the method comprising: transmitting, by a base station, a first contention message for a network resource during a first time interval for use of the network resource in the next time interval; counting, by the base station, a number of contention messages received during the same first time interval from other base stations contending for the next time interval; if one or more contention messages are received during the first time interval, deferring, by the base station, a use of the network resource in the communications network during the next time interval; and if one or more contention messages are not received during the first time interval, using, by the base station, the network resource during the next time interval, wherein the transmitting and determining are performed concurrently or in parallel with a use of the network resource by the base station during the first time interval, and the transmitting is not performed over the network resource for which contention is being performed.