Patent ID: 7280518

Claim:
A method for a remote device to monitor and communicate with a wireless network, comprising: receiving a beacon at the remote device, the beacon including beacon information that defines a superframe; determining from the beacon information whether one or more management time slots within an associated superframe are assigned to a network device or are unassigned; repeating the steps of receiving and determining until the remote device either receives M beacons indicating that the one or more management time slots within the associated superframe are assigned, or a beacon indicating that the one or more management time slots within the associated superframe are unassigned; performing an association request if the remote device receives the beacon indicating that the one or more management time slots within the associated superframe are unassigned; performing a network-full function if the remote device receives the M beacons indicating that the one or more management time slots within the associated superframe are assigned, wherein M is an integer greater than one.