Patent ID: 7093015

Claim:
A method for a new client joining a wireless network for accessing multimedia data and services from a server, the method comprising: monitoring the wireless network to determine the presence of network frames, each frame having a duration approximately equal to the duration of a frame of video, and including a server transmission interval for transmissions from the server; a client transmission interval for transmissions from existing clients to the server; and a quiet interval during which neither the server nor the existing clients transmit: transmitting, by a new client, a connection request message to the server during the quiet interval of the network frame; receiving from the server an indication that the connection request message has been received by the server; determining bandwidth requirements of the client; assigning subintervals within the server transmission and client transmission intervals to the new client for communication between the new client and the server responsive to the bandwidth requirements of the new client and the availability of bandwidth in the wireless network.