BEACON PERIODS IN A RANDOM STRUCTURE NETWORK

摘要

In a distributed Mac protocol having a slotted superframe (102) comprising at least one slotted beacon period (104) followed by a data transfer period (103), a system and method is provided for creating and maintaining several beacon periods (104) at different positions in the superframe (102). When joining the network (300) a device (301) either joins an existing beacon period (104) or creates a new beacon period (104) at a position in the superframe (102) that does not overlap with beacon periods (104) or reservation periods. Beacon periods (104) mutually protect each other by devices (301) announcing the neighboring beacon periods in their beacons.