Patent ID: 8520692

Claim:
A method of operating a first device having a first connection with a second device, said first and second devices being peer to peer communications devices, the method comprising: monitoring, by the first device, a first transmission request response interval corresponding to a second connection between a third device and a fourth device, the first transmission request response interval being one of a plurality of transmission request response intervals in a first user scheduling interval corresponding to a first traffic interval, said transmission request response intervals being ordered according to transmission priority, transmission request response intervals corresponding to connections having higher transmission priority occurring within said first user scheduling interval before transmission request response intervals corresponding to connections having lower priorities; determining, by the first device, whether to transmit a transmission request during said first user scheduling interval based on whether a transmission request response for transmission of data was received during said monitoring from one or more communications between the third device and the fourth device corresponding to the second connection; and if it is determined that a transmission request should not be transmitted based on the received transmission request response, refraining from using a transmission request interval corresponding to the first connection and refraining from transmitting traffic during said first traffic interval, wherein said transmission request interval is one of a plurality of transmission request intervals in the first user scheduling interval, said transmission request intervals being interleaved with corresponding transmission request response intervals during the first user scheduling interval, and wherein the transmission request intervals are ordered in the first user scheduling interval according to transmission priority, transmission request intervals corresponding to connections having higher transmission priority occurring within the first user scheduling interval before transmission request intervals corresponding to connections having lower priorities.