US Patent 8432887 Medium access control for tree-topology networks

According to various embodiments of the invention, a MAC protocol is presented that provides for coordinated communication in a personal area network. Further embodiments of the invention provide methods for aligning communications among multiple networks to reduce interference between the networks. Still further embodiments provide methods for communication frame formatting that allow prioritized access between a network coordinator and an end device while allowing the remaining end devices to communicate with the coordinator. In particular embodiments, the MAC protocol may be implemented in a BAN or WPAN.