Patent ID: 8351457

Claim:
A method for providing a priority-based, low-collision distributed coordination function (DCF) in a wireless network comprising an access point and a plurality of stations, the method comprising: receiving at a first station a super-frame from the access point, the super-frame defining a service period for each of the stations; determining a priority for the first station based on the super-frame and a current service period, wherein the priority is determined to be a high priority if the current service period is a service period assigned to the first station in the super-frame and the priority is determined to be a low priority if the current service period is a service period assigned to another station in the super-frame; and selecting a back-off time for the first station based on the priority, wherein a shorter back-off time is selected if the priority for the first station is the high priority than if the priority for the first station is the low priority.