Patent ID: 8873520

Claim:
A method for enabling two or more TDMA-based wireless networks to share a communication channel, the communication channel being divided into a plurality of superframes, wherein each superframe includes a fixed number of time slots and each wireless network implementing superframes, the method comprising: within each network, implementing active superframes separated by one or more inactive superframes and only implementing active superframes when the other networks are implementing inactive superframes, wherein a network only communicates during that networks active superframes and does not communicate during that network's inactive superframes and wherein communication within each network only occurs in the time slots of that network's active superframes; wherein the active superframes are implemented by the network without the need for that network to actively co-operate or communicate with any other network; further comprising, at each network: when the network wants to begin using the communication channel, determining if one or more other networks are using the communication channel; if it is determined that no other networks are using the communication channel, implementing active superframes separated by one or more inactive superframes; and if it is determined that one or more other networks are using the communication channel, determining if a superframe is available during which the one or more other networks are all implementing inactive superframes and, if there is a superframe available, implementing active superframes separated by one or more inactive superframes and only implementing active superframes when the other networks are implementing inactive superframes; wherein each network transmits a beacon during that networks active superframes; and wherein the beacon further includes a sequence value indicating when the network that transmitted the beacon began using the communication channel relative to the other networks that are using communication channel.