Patent ID: 7453903

Claim:
A wireless network device comprising: a first circuit for receiving wireless messages from remote wireless network devices; a second circuit for sending wireless messages to the remote wireless network devices; a third circuit for monitoring and analyzing the nature of network traffic between the wireless network device and each of the remote wireless devices; a fourth circuit for making a determination of the relative priorities of the various remote wireless network devices, the fourth circuit determining the priority of one of the remote wireless network devices based at least in part on the volume of network traffic between the wireless network device and the one of the remote wireless network devices, wherein the fourth circuit increases the priority of the one remote wireless device to a higher priority in response to the third circuit determining that the volume of network traffic has increased beyond a predetermined threshold; a fifth circuit for forming a message to the remote wireless network devices, the message operable to set a backoff time in the one remote wireless network device, the backoff time related to the relative priority of the one remote wireless network device; and the second circuit operable to send the message from the fifth circuit to the one remote wireless network device.