DETERMINISTIC BACK-OFF-METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PEER-TO-PEER COMMUNICATIONS

摘要

A method and apparatus are described including identifying a channel that a decentralized network is using for communications and identifying a station that is a member of the decentralized network to monitor data transmission activity over the identified channel. Also described are a method and apparatus for a station to transmit data over a communication medium of a decentralized network including monitoring the communication medium, determining if the communication medium is idle, transmitting data if the communication medium is idle and if the station has a data to transmit and adjusting a slot count and a service ring configuration if the medium is busy. Further described are a method and apparatus including monitoring a communication channel used by a decentralized network, determining a number of available idle time slots between two successive frame transmissions initiated by different stations, updating a service ring, adjusting a number of stations and adjusting a slot count.