Patent ID: 8107431

Claim:
A master station used in a first communication system which includes the master station and a slave station that performs communication based on bandwidth information, wherein the slave station is notified of the bandwidth information by a beacon packet from the master station, the master station comprising: a bandwidth management section for setting, in a cycle, a beacon period of the first communication system such that the beacon period is allocated to a same period as a beacon period of a second communication system, the beacon period of the first communication system including a plurality of slots in a communication bandwidth of a channel; and a communication section for (i) transmitting, in a cycle, a beacon packet including bandwidth information indicating the period to which the beacon period is allocated, the transmitted beacon packet being transmitted in a predetermined slot of the beacon period of the first communication system, and (ii) receiving, in a cycle, a beacon packet including bandwidth information indicating the period to which the beacon period of the second communication period is allocated, the received beacon packet being received in a slot different from the predetermined slot of the beacon period of the first communication system, wherein the received beacon packet is transmitted from a master station included in the second communication system.