Patent ID: 8457553

Claim:
In a wireless communication network comprising at least one master communication station and at least one slave communication station, in which at least one of the slave communication stations has a capability of functioning as a master communication station, a method for providing continuity of communications, comprising: the at least one slave communication station listening to communications from other slave communication stations during a contention access period to obtain at least one signal strength information value; during a neighborhood dissemination subframe in a contention access period, the at least one master station polling a plurality of stations to obtain data concerning stations in range of the respective polled stations; receiving, by the at least one master station, data concerning the stations in range of the respective polled stations; receiving, by the at least one master station, the signal strength information values for communications between potential successor stations while the successor stations were not operating in a master station capacity; selecting, by the at least one master station, a hierarchy of successor stations based on the received data concerning the stations in range of the respective polled stations, the hierarchy based on the received signal strength information values for communications between successor stations while the successor stations were not operating in a master station capacity; and communicating, by the at least one master station, a successor protocol to stations in the hierarchy of successor stations during a beacon, the successor protocol comprising the hierarchy of the successor stations, wherein the at least one master communication station and the at least one slave communication station follow a communication format established by IEEE 802.15.