Patent ID: 8040857

Claim:
A method for time division multiple access timeslot and channel allocation in a wireless communication network having a plurality of nodes comprising: during a distributed allocation phase, a particular node of the plurality of nodes acting as a current distributed-allocation leader node, wherein acting as a current distributed-allocation leader node comprises: allocating timeslots to active links between the particular node and neighboring nodes, allocating channels for the allocated timeslots; selecting a new distributed-allocation leader node from among the plurality of nodes; and during a subsequent allocation adjustment phase, the particular node acting as a current allocation-adjustment leader node, wherein acting as a current allocation-adjustment leader node comprises: identifying a maximum number of time slots; identifying one or more additional timeslots available for allocation based on a difference between the timeslots allocated by the particular node during the distributed allocation phase and the maximum number of time slots; allocating the one or more additional timeslots and corresponding channels to one or more active links between the particular node and one or more neighboring nodes; and selectin a new allocation-adjustment leader node from among the plurality of nodes.