Patent ID: 7890116

Claim:
A wireless communications device, comprising: a receiver configured to receive a plurality of beacon messages from a plurality of other wireless devices in a group across a wireless transmission medium, wherein the beacon messages are for maintaining coordination between wireless devices in the group, each of the beacon messages including a beacon period length field indicating at least a number of beacon slots announced to the group by a device sending the beacon message and the beacon messages including device identifications of all devices in the group; a controller configured to determine a required beacon period length for the group including the wireless communications device based on at least information of the received beacon messages, said required beacon period length being a commonly shared period for the plurality of wireless devices in the group to contain a required number of beacon slots sufficient for the identified devices to transmit beacon messages during the beacon period; and a transmitter configured to send a generated beacon message including a beacon period length field corresponding to the required beacon period length, announcing a number of beacon slots to the group by the wireless communications device.