Patent ID: 7808941

Claim:
A method for controlling communications in a wireless local area network (WLAN) having an access point as a communication portal and a plurality of wireless communication nodes each wirelessly communicating with the access point, comprising: operating the access point to receive information about communication flows from the nodes; assigning (1) selected nodes, based on nature of communication flows with the selected nodes, with contention-free time periods to allow each selected node to communicate with the access point without contention with other nodes in a corresponding contention-free time period, and (2) remaining nodes to contend with each other in a time period outside the contention-free time periods and to communicate with the access point; after the assigning, monitoring communication delay buildup in each of the nodes during communications in assigned time periods to determine whether additional time is needed; allocating additional contention-free time to a node needing the additional time when such additional contention-free time is available; and when the additional contention-free time is not available, directing the selected node to contend with other nodes in communicating with the access point.