Patent ID: 7808965

Claim:
A medium access control method, for use in a communication network system including a control station for controlling access to a network and a plurality of terminal stations for accessing the network under the control of the control station, and for controlling network access by using a time division technique, the method comprising: steps performed by the control station of: generating transmission schedules for a plurality of communications performed in the network, the transmission schedules including information allocating a time zone usable for each of the communications; generating one schedule frame based on the collected transmission schedules, and including in the schedule frame a number of times of repetition indicative of how many more times the same schedule frame is successively transmitted; transmitting the generated schedule frame to the plurality of the terminal stations in predetermined cycles; and performing a communication in a time zone which is allocated to the control station, and steps performed by each of the plurality of the terminal stations of: receiving the schedule frame transmitted by the control station; performing, when the schedule frame cannot be received, the schedule frame based on the number of times of repetition included in the schedule frame previously received; determining, based on the schedule frame, a terminal station's own time zone in which communication can be performed; and performing the communication in the determined time zone.