Patent ID: 7567537

Claim:
A method for operating an IEEE 802.11 node to participate in a point-to-point wireless communication link, said method comprising: sensing a medium shared with a node constituting an opposite side of said point-to-point wireless communication link to determine if a transmission is detected, one of said nodes configured as a master bridge and the other of said nodes configured as a slave bridge; if a transmission is detected on said shared medium, deferring transmission by a period of time, wherein said period of time for said master bridge is shorter than said period of time for said slave bridge; exchanging control of said shared medium with said node constituting an opposite side of said point-to-point link without contention and without polling; and transmitting data when in control of said shared medium; wherein transmitting said data comprises selecting one of modes of operation, said modes of operation comprising an alternating mode wherein the IEEE 802.11 node transmits a first packet and then transmits a second packet after receiving an acknowledgement for said first packet, and a burst mode wherein the IEEE 802.11 node transmits a plurality of packets consecutively in a burst and requests acknowledgement at the end of said burst.