Patent ID: 7496081

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of nodes forming a group and configured for communicating wirelessly using repeating patterns of superframes, each of the superframes including at least one beacon period during which each of the plurality of nodes is configured to transmit a beacon message including a beacon period length value indicating at least a number of beacon slots announced to the group by a node sending the beacon transmission to maintain coordination between the plurality of nodes in the group by enabling each node in the group to respectively reserve at least one beacon slot in the at least one beacon period; wherein said plurality of nodes forming the group are further configured to reserve at least one beacon slot in the beginning of the at least one beacon period, said at least one beacon slot being dedicated for so that any of the plurality of nodes in the group is capable of sending a beacon transmission within said at least one reserved beacon slot; wherein said plurality of nodes are further configured to reserve at least one beacon slot in a first Media Access Slot (MAS) occurring in the beginning of the at least one beacon period, and wherein the at least one beacon slot is reserved for increasing the number of the beacon slots announced for beaconing in the superframes.