Overlap mitigation in wireless LANs using a central medium access control

摘要

The present invention relates to an access point for a wireless local area network. The access point is arranged to service its stations by using a Point Coordination Function protocol and to monitor overlap with neighbouring access points. To mitigate overlap, the access point and overlapping neigbouring access points synchronize in such a way that the access point can service its stations in an overlap areas during a certain servicing time, while the overlapping neighbouring access points are silent, and vice versa. A silence trade-off mechanism is used to assure that overlapping access points get their fair share of available bandwidth.