Patent ID: 8472416

Claim:
A method for maintaining a hybrid coordinator (HC) in an IEEE 802.11 wireless communications local area network (LAN), the method comprising: a first IEEE 802.11 station (STA) seeking a guaranteed quality of service (QoS); establishing a first IEEE 802.11 basic service set (BSS) through association with a first IEEE 802.11 access point (AP) with a first set of responsibilities including network arbitration functions; the first AP selecting a first IEEE 802.11 HC, with a second set of responsibilities, different from the first set, including managing QoS information streams from IEEE 802.11 STAs in the first BSS; the first AP broadcasting the first HC information to STAs in the first BSS; and, the first STA initiating an IEEE 802.11 transmission specification (TSPEC) with the first HC.