Patent ID: 8923172

Claim:
A method for wireless communications by an addressed station receiving downlink transmissions, the method comprising: receiving a downlink transmission containing a deterministic slot count for an addressed station, the deterministic slot count indicating a backoff period, from a next transmit opportunity, for the addressed station to wait to transmit a response frame to the downlink transmission, wherein the addressed station has priority over at least one contender in a network, and wherein the at least one contender receives no downlink transmission containing the deterministic slot count; determining, at the addressed station, timing of the next transmit opportunity for transmitting the response frame based, at least in part, on the deterministic slot count received in the downlink transmission; receiving, at the addressed station, a guaranteed start time, the guaranteed start time measured from an end time of the downlink transmission; and determining the next transmit opportunity for transmitting the response frame based on the guaranteed start time, rather than the deterministic slot count, in response to a condition.