Patent ID: 8059637

Claim:
A radio communication method by which a first radio communication apparatus transmits a beacon in a beacon slot within a beacon period, comprising: detecting, whether there is an empty beacon slot in the beacon period located before the first radio communication apparatus's beacon slot within the beacon period, in case that the empty beacon slot is detected in detecting step, the method further comprising: generating and transmitting, a first beacon sender information, the first beacon sender information including an identifier which identifies the first radio communication apparatus and indicates that the first radio communication apparatus is requesting to move to the empty beacon slot, and waiting a predetermined number of super frames before moving to the empty beacon slot, wherein the empty beacon slot is confirmed to be available when, in each of the predetermined number of super frames: i) a specific beacon transmitted from a specific radio communication apparatus programmed to move its beacon slot position is not received later than the radio communication apparatus's beacon slot position within the beacon period and earlier than the end of the beacon period, and ii) the specific radio transmission apparatus programmed to move its beacon slot position is not detected in other beacon period occupancy information included in the other beacons transmitted from the other radio communication apparatuses to have the specific beacon later in the beacon period than the radio communication apparatus; and changing, the beacon slot of the first radio communication apparatus to the empty beacon slot after the predetermined number of super frames, when the empty beacon slot is confirmed to be available.