Patent ID: 8045502

Claim:
In a communication network ( 100 ) comprising a plurality of devices ( 110 ) communicating using a reservation-based data transfer protocol having a superframe ( 600 ) comprising a plurality of slots ( 610 ), a method ( 400 ) of reserving X slots ( 610 ) for transmitting data from a source device ( 110 A) to a destination device ( 110 D) via multi-hop relay, the method comprising: sending ( 410 ) a first hop reservation request from the source device ( 110 A), addressed to a second device ( 110 ) different from the destination device ( 110 D), for transmitting data from the source device ( 110 A) to the destination device ( 110 D), the first hop reservation request identifying the source device ( 110 A), the destination device ( 110 D), and X proposed slots ( 610 ) to be reserved for a first hop between the source device ( 110 A) and the second device ( 110 ); at the source device ( 110 A) receiving ( 425 ) a first message, addressed to the source device ( 110 A) from the second device ( 110 ), indicating that the first hop reservation request is pending and that the X slots ( 610 ) proposed by the source device ( 110 A) have been reserved by the second device ( 110 ); and at the source device ( 110 A) receiving ( 455 ) a subsequent message, addressed to the source device ( 110 A) from the second device ( 110 ), indicating that a final hop reservation request has been accepted by the destination device ( 110 D), corresponding to the first hop reservation request of the source device ( 110 A).