SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING LOW OVERHEAD FLOOR CONTROL IN A DISTRIBUTED PEER-TO-PEER COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A system and method for providing low overhead floor control in a distributed control two-way radio communications network (200) including one or more subscriber stations (201,205, 213, 215, 217) and one or more peer stations (203, 207, 211) interconnected via an Internet connection (209) using no central control. A subscriber station (201) utilizes a floor request during a timed floor request window (FRW) for requesting floor control to a given peer station (203). The system and method provide for consistent floor control decisions throughout the communications network (200) which includes a policy to block additional floor requests from local subscriber stations once an initial floor request has been received. This enables each peer to receive an identical set of floor requests as every other peer within the FRW such that every peer will grant the floor to the same subscriber.