Patent ID: 8194693

Claim:
A method of operating a plurality of wireless devices each including a receiver and a transmitter, the method comprising: controlling each device to divide time into a succession of frames, each frame having plural timeslots, and into a succession of superframes, each superframe having plural frames; operating the receiver in each device in at least some of the timeslots of a selected operating frame over plural superframes; for each device, determining from the signals received by its receiver, which of the at least some timeslots of the selected operating frame are occupied by transmissions from the other devices; using the result of the determination to generate data relating to the presence and operational status of the other devices; transmitting data for reception by other devices, the transmitted data including the presence and operational status data generated by the device, and including the data generated by the device which relates to the presence and operational status of the other devices, wherein each device selects a transmit timeslot in a selected operating frame in each superframe in which to transmit payload data; and operating the receiver in all other timeslots of the selected operating frame.