Patent ID: 7978644

Claim:
A method of fair scheduling for channel access in a wireless network comprising a plurality of nodes including a first node and a group of further nodes comprising at least one second node, the method comprising the steps of: arranging a packet to be transmitted at the first node; calculating a waiting time for the first node; the first node attempting the transmission of the packet on the channel at least after the calculated waiting time; wherein said waiting time calculating step further includes: (a) evaluating by the first node a first parameter of channel use corresponding to a time delay obtained by the first node for the transmission on the network of further packets preceding said packing in a preceding time span; (b) receiving at the first node from each of the nodes of said group of further nodes, respective information of channel use representative of the time of channel use obtained by said each node, for the transmission on the network of further packets preceding said packet in said preceding time span, wherein said respective information of channel use is evaluated and made available by said each node; and (c) calculating a first size representative of a ratio between a real use of the channel by the first node and a real use of the channel by said group of further nodes, during said preceding time span, wherein said calculating step is performed by the first node on the basis of knowledge of said first parameter of channel use and of said respective information of channel use made available by each node of said group of further nodes.