US Patent 8630307 Methods and apparatus for traffic contention resource allocation

Methods and apparatus for allocating traffic contention resource units in a wireless communications system in which decisions are made in a distributed manner are described. A wireless communications device, corresponding to a link, self allocates resource units for traffic contention. Decisions regarding initially acquiring resources, relinquishing acquired resources, and/or acquiring additional resources for traffic contention are based on detected levels of network congestion and/or detected changes in network congestion. A wireless communications device detects a level of network congestion and determines a number of resource units to acquire for traffic contention based on the detected level of network congestion.