Patent ID: 7814205

Claim:
A method for managing floor control in a network, the network comprising a plurality of subscriber devices and a plurality of nodes, each subscriber device of the plurality of subscriber devices associated with at least one node, the method comprising at a node: beginning a ballot timer when the earlier of a) a first node packet is created at the node, wherein the first node packet comprises a first timestamp and b) a second node packet is received at the node from a second node, wherein the second node packet comprises a second timestamp, wherein the ballot timer runs for a first predefined time interval, wherein the node is able to receive different node packets comprising different timestamps from other nodes during operation of the ballot timer; and determining a floor holder upon expiration of the first predefined time interval based upon an earliest time of the first timestamp and the different timestamps received from the other nodes, wherein a node packet having a timestamp prior to a winning timestamp of a previous floor holder but received by the node after determination of the floor holder is excluded from determination of a next floor holder, wherein the node and the second node have a same absolute timing reference, and wherein the ballot timer is begun and the floor holder determined at each of the plurality of nodes, the ballot timers at each of the plurality of nodes run concurrently to provide a decentralized method of managing floor control.