Patent ID: 8537769

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a base station; a media access control (MAC) element included in the base station and executed by a processor of the base station and configured to: provide a contiguous new access opportunity time period on a frequency channel; and provide one or more reserved time periods, different from the contiguous time period, for transmission to and from terminal stations on the frequency channel; and an antenna coupled to the base station and configured to receive uplink communications from terminal stations, wherein the contiguous new access opportunity time period has a duration of m+g+k, where m is an access burst duration, g is a maximum round-trip delay duration, and k is a time period greater than or equal to zero, wherein m, g, and k are real numbers, and wherein if k is greater than zero, the antenna receives the uplink communications from terminal stations that randomize their transmission send time to reduce probability of collisions during the contiguous new access opportunity time period.