Patent ID: 7209467

Claim:
A method of controlling network elements in a wireless network to schedule transmissions over a channel, comprising: measuring a successful transmission time duration within a measurement period corresponding to the time during the measurement period during which successful transmissions occurred over the channel; filtering the measured successful transmission time duration, by adjusting the measured successful transmission time duration with a value corresponding to a product of a forgetting factor with a difference in most recent measured successful transmission time durations; adjusting a minimum value of an upper limit of a random number range responsive to the filtered measured successful transmission time duration; broadcasting the adjusted minimum value of the limit of the random number range to at least one other network element in the wireless network, wherein the adjusted minimum value of the limit of the random number range controls the random number range from which the at least one other network element selects a random number that determines when the at least one other network element initiates a transmission over the channel after the end of a prior transmission over the channel; and repeating the measuring, adjusting, and broadcasting steps.