US Patent 7869412 Point-controlled contention arbitration

In an example embodiment, there is described herein a method for providing quality of service during a contention period. A tiered access protocol enables an Access Point to act as a channel arbitrator and gain control a channel during a contention period. The Access Point waits a specified amount of time before taking control of a channel for either transmitting an outbound frame or initiating Polled-Contention Free Bursts. In addition, a method for increasing the time span between Delivery Traffic Indication Message beacons by tracking when Wireless Stations are able to receive messages and instantly delivering messages to those Wireless Stations.