Patent ID: 8634352

Claim:
A method of performing resource negotiation in a station implementing a direct communication link with at least one other station on an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) data channel, the method comprising: scanning sub-channels on the data channel for base headers included in predefined positions in transmissions sent on the sub-channel; decoding a base header in at least one selected sub-channel to obtain parameters of a channel reservation; storing the parameters obtained from the base header in a channel utilization table; selecting a resource on the data channel in at least one of time or frequency that the station has observed to be free using information from the channel utilization table; determining, by a receiving station, if it has scanned the data channel for a predefined minimum scanning time upon receiving a connection request message; queuing the connection request message if the scanning is not complete and starting a timer; and entering into an iterative resource negotiation process with a transmitting station if the scanning completes before the timer expires, wherein if the iterative resource negotiation process is successful, the receiving station moves a data connection into an active mode and begins transmitting data packets in a negotiated resource.