Patent ID: 8724598

Claim:
A method for distributed medium access in a wireless communication network having one or more nodes comprising: receiving a first communication frame at a node, said communication frame having a frame destination bitmap, wherein said frame destination bitmap can be collectively transmitted by any one or more of said one or more nodes, and wherein said frame destination bitmap can designate any one or more of said one or more nodes as receiver(s); transmitting a slot map from said node during said frame destination bitmap of said first communication frame; receiving said frame destination bitmap at said node; receiving a first slot in said first communication frame, said first slot having a slot owner that is one of said one or more nodes; transmitting a contention beacon if said node has contention traffic; sampling for said contention beacon, wherein said nodes sample for said contention beacon after an interframe space time, T IFS , and further wherein said non-slot owners sample with probability p s ; determining whether said contention beacon is present; wherein when said contention beacon is not present, said slot owner of said first slot transmitting non-contention traffic, if any, during said first slot; terminating said first slot; determining whether said first slot is a final slot in said first communication frame; wherein when said first slot is not said final slot, receiving a next slot in said first communication frame; and wherein when said first slot is said final slot, receiving a next communication frame.