Patent ID: 8619806

Claim:
A communication device performing access control in a network including a plurality of communication devices such that communication timing of a packet will not collide with communication timing of another device by detecting a signal transmitted from another device, the communication device comprising: a transmission and reception unit configured to transmit a request-to-send packet to a second communication device in the network, receive from the second communication device a request-to-send acknowledgement response packet relative to the request-to-send packet, transmit a data packet to the second communication device in response to reception of the request-to-send acknowledgement response packet, and receive from the second communication device a data reception acknowledgement response packet; and a control unit configured to write a first duration in the physical layer header of the request-to-send packet, and a second duration in the physical layer header of the data packet, wherein the first duration indicates a first period of time until completed transmission of the request-to-send acknowledgement response packet, which is to be transmitted in response to reception of the request-to-send packet by the second communication device, the second duration indicates a second period of time until completed transmission of the data reception acknowledgement response packet, which is to be transmitted in response to reception of the data packet by the second communication device, and based on at least one of the first duration and the second duration, a third communication device in the network is prohibited from performing transmission processing.