Patent ID: 8243701

Claim:
A method for managing peer-to-peer communications in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) having a plurality of wireless terminals including a transmitter and a receiver, one of the plurality of wireless terminals acts as a master at any time and remaining ones of the plurality of wireless terminals acting as slaves at any time to alternate mastering duties among the plurality of wireless terminals, the method comprising: communicating according to a frame cycle including a beaconing period and a broadcast data period; during the beaconing period, the one wireless terminal of the plurality of terminals acting as the master transmitting a beacon and each of the remaining wireless terminals of the plurality of wireless terminals acting as the remaining ones of the plurality of wireless terminals listening for the beacon; during the broadcast data period, the one wireless terminal of the plurality of terminals acting as the master broadcasting data and each of the remaining ones of the plurality of wireless terminals listening for the broadcast data; and alternating mastering duties among the plurality of wireless terminals according to a round-robin mastering cycle, the round-robin mastering cycle including a plurality of frame cycles, wherein another one of the plurality of wireless terminals acting as a master during each frame cycle of the plurality of wireless terminals and the remaining ones of the plurality of wireless terminals acting as the slaves during the each frame cycle of the plurality of wireless terminals.