Patent ID: 8583805

Claim:
In a first electronic device, a method comprising: identifying a first communication period that is scheduled between the first electronic device and a second electronic device; determining whether a conflict exists between the first communication period and a second communication period that involves the first electronic device; unscheduling the first communication period when a conflict exists; determining, when no conflict exists, a duration of the first communication period; determining whether the duration of the first communication period exceeds a threshold duration; unscheduling the first communication period when the duration of the first communication period does not exceed the threshold duration; determining, when the duration of the first communication period does not exceed the threshold duration, whether a third communication period is extendable, wherein the third communication period is extendable when a duration of the third communication period was previously limited by the first communication period; and extending, when the third communication period is extendable and when the duration of the first communication period does not exceed the threshold duration, the duration of the third communication period, wherein extending the duration of the third communication period comprises: deleting a termination time point corresponding to the third communication period; and determining a new termination time point corresponding to the third communication period.