Patent ID: 8379552

Claim:
An apparatus for performing wireless transmission adaptation in a wireless network, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory unit; and at least one processor operably coupled to the at least one memory unit and configured to operably execute instructions associated with a set of modules, the set of modules including: a path selector module arranged to receive a request from a data source to transmit data from a source node to a destination node and to select a transmission path for transmission of data packets between the source node and the destination node through a coordinator node in a wireless network, the wireless network being a packet switched wireless network and implementing a collision avoidance protocol; a statistics collection module at the coordinator node arranged to track a contribution of each node in the transmission path to data packet traffic in the wireless network; and a wireless transmission adaptation module arranged to determine one or more variable backoff time values for each node in the transmission path, and to provide the variable backoff time values from the coordinator node to the source node and to each node in the transmission path, wherein the variable backoff time values for a particular node are increased based on a higher contribution of the particular node to data packet traffic in the wireless network and decreased based on a lower contribution of the particular node to data packet traffic in the wireless network, the variable backoff time values determined independently of transmission power for transmissions providing data packet traffic in the wireless network; wherein a transmission of the data on the wireless network from the source node and each node in the transmission path is performed in connection with use of the variable backoff time values.