Patent ID: 7738481

Claim:
A wireless communication device configured to perform packet transmission in accordance with a packet transmission system that performs wireless bandwidth allocation by virtual carrier sensing, comprising: a time-point management module configured to output current time-point information, the current time-point information corresponding to a current time-point within a prescribed transmission period; a parameter management module configured to manage a parameter relating to packet transmission right acquisition priority describing the priority of the wireless communication device to acquire a right for packet transmission, during a packet transmission right acquisition priority time which is the time during which the wireless communication device has the packet transmission right acquisition priority, of the wireless communication device, wherein said parameter management module comprises: a parameter holding module configured to hold, in association with a time-point, the parameter relating to the packet transmission right acquisition priority that changes with a different distribution between wireless communication devices located in the same wireless LAN area, in the prescribed transmission period; and a parameter alteration module configured to read, from said parameter holding module, said parameter associated with the current time-point information that is output by said time-point management module and to dynamically alter a current parameter relating to the packet transmission right acquisition priority in accordance with the parameter thus read; a random number calculation section configured to calculate a random value for a back-off period based on the altered current parameter relating to the packet transmission right acquisition priority; and a packet transmission section configured to perform the packet transmission over a communication channel, after the calculated random value for the back-off period has elapsed during an idle period of the communication channel.