Patent ID: 7768992

Claim:
A method for operating a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) comprising a plurality of mobile nodes and a plurality of wireless communications links connecting the mobile nodes together, which comprises: an “n” number of mobile nodes concurrently contending for a plurality of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) slots in a frame using beacons from mobile nodes that are neighboring an n-hop distance to a source mobile node; each neighboring node selecting a TDMA slot per frame and acknowledging any successful beacons; for neighboring nodes not receiving an acknowledgement for successful beacons, contending on empty TDMA slots; and resolving residual collisions for those neighboring nodes that had not received an acknowledgement for successful beacons using a collision detection mechanism utilizing a message exchange mechanism with a first neighboring node by temporarily exchanging a beacon transmission time with a second neighboring node wherein the first and second neighboring nodes each transmit their beacons in the other nodes' beacon slot for reception by a neighboring node to detect beacon collisions.