Patent ID: 8306050

Claim:
A method of contending for access to a shared communications channel to transmit a message, comprising: initiating a backoff procedure for the message by decrementing a backoff counter by one every time the shared communications channel is idle during a contention slot of a random access phase, the backoff counter initially set to a first integer value that is randomly selected from the range [1, CW 1 ], where a first contention window (CW 1 ) value is selected based upon a traffic designation for the message; locking the backoff counter at a current value when a locking condition is identified; and unlocking the backoff counter when an unlock condition is identified; detecting a failed transmission; creating a second contention window (CW 2 ) value, where the CW 2 value is set to the CW 1 value, if the CW 1 value was doubled in a last backoff counter setting, and the CW 2 value is set to double the CW 2 value, if the CW 1 value was unchanged in the last backoff counter setting; randomly selecting a second integer value from the range [1, CW 2 ]; resetting the backoff counter to the second integer value; and initiating the backoff procedure.