Patent ID: 8724557

Claim:
A slot scheduling method performed in a medium access control (MAC) system of a multihop sensor network, the slot scheduling method comprising: transmitting a request command that requests slot allocation, from a source node to a destination node that exists within transmission range; receiving a reply command that indicates the slot allocation, from the destination node; and transmitting to the destination node a notification command that confirms that a slot has been allocated, and wherein a multi-superframe is formed of a plurality of superframes, and includes at least one non-competition period which consists of time slots including a plurality of channels, and wherein the allocated slot is an extended slot defined with a slot number of a time slot and a channel number indicating a channel of the time slot, and wherein a number of superframes constituting the multi-superframe is 2 (MO-SO) , and where MO denotes a length of the multi-superframes and SO denotes a length of a superframe.