Patent ID: 7706822

Claim:
A method used by a mesh point, comprising: formatting a synchronization capability field of one of a beacon and probe response that includes: an indication of whether the mesh point supports synchronization (SynchSupp), an indication of whether the mesh point requests synchronization from a peer mesh point (SynchReq); an indication of whether the mesh point is already synchronized with one or more peers (SynchPeers); and when the mesh point is one of a non-access point mesh point and a lightweight access point: initiating a beacon backoff function upon the expiration of a target beacon transmission timer when at least one of SynchReq and SynchPeers of the mesh point are true; and cancelling the beacon backoff function when one of a beacon and probe response from an other mesh point is received in which at last one of SynchReq and SynchPeers of the other mesh point are true.