Patent ID: 8515356

Claim:
A radio communication system comprising: an upper-level station; a plurality of lower-level stations, each of the lower-level stations having a lower-level station ID that identifies the lower-level station and a group ID that identifies a group to which the lower-level station belongs; and a signal including the lower-level station ID and the group ID that is transmitted/received between the lower-level stations, wherein each lower-level station from the plurality of lower-level stations includes: a detection unit that detects, from the signal from another lower-level station, the lower-level station ID and the group ID of the other lower-level station, a measurement unit that measures a channel utilization state of the other lower-level station based on the signal, a calculation unit that calculates a channel utilization amount for each lower-level station and a channel utilization amount for each group, based on the lower-level station ID and group ID of the other lower-level station detected by the detection unit and the channel utilization state of the other lower-level station measured by the measurement unit, an update unit that updates a channel utilization probability which indicates a utilization probability of communication channels based on the channel utilization amount for each lower-level station and the channel utilization amount for each group calculated by the calculation unit, and a determination unit that determines a communication channel to be utilized for transmission by the lower-level station, based on the channel utilization probability updated by the update unit, and the calculation unit further calculates the channel utilization amount for each lower-level station and the channel utilization amount for each group based on a reaction coefficient which indicates a partiality in an allocation of communication channels within the group as well as the lower-level station ID, the group ID, and the channel utilization state.