Patent ID: 7447503

Claim:
A. method of operating a network coordinator, comprising: receiving device capability information from a plurality of network devices, including whether each of the plurality of network devices can perform network control functions; determining whether any of the plurality of network devices is capable of performing network control functions based on the device capability information; receiving network channel status information from one or more of the plurality of network devices in management frames assigned to the one or more of the plurality of network devices, respectively, the network channel status information indicating which of the plurality of network devices are within range of a transmitting device; choosing one of the plurality of network devices that is capable of performing network control functions to be a designated next coordinator based on the network channel status information, if any of the plurality of network devices are capable of performing network control functions; determining that there will be no designated next coordinator if none of the plurality of network devices are capable of performing network control functions; and sending a beacon to the plurality of network devices, the beacon including next coordinator information indicating one of: the designated next coordinator, or that there is no designated next coordinator.