Relaxed deterministic back-off method for medium access control

1. A method, said method comprising:

initializing said slot count;

decrementing said slot count when a communication medium is idle;

transmitting data, by a terminal over a shared contention-based wireless communication medium using a media access control protocol, if a slot count is equal to a triggering event, wherein said slot count is a count of a number of time slots in a back-off cycle and wherein said back-off cycle has a fixed number of said time slots and wherein said triggering event is one of a possible plurality of transmission opportunities for said terminal and wherein said back-off window is fixed;

selecting a random number if said data transmission was not successful;

comparing said random number to a threshold;

selecting a new triggering event responsive to a failed data transmission, wherein said new triggering event is selected based on said comparison; replacing said triggering event with said new triggering event; and

reusing said triggering event in a subsequent back-off cycles responsive to a successful data transmission, said successful data transmission is a data transmission that was acknowledged in a previous back-off cycle.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining if said slot count is equal to said triggering event; and

determining if there is data to transmit if said slot count is equal to said triggering event.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said random number is in a first interval.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said new triggering event is selected from a set of integers in a second interval.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein a greatest integer in said second interval is one of less than and equal to a maximum size of an address space.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said communication medium is wireless.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a condition of said communication medium being idle is based on a result of one of physical carrier sensing and virtual carrier sensing.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

means for initializing said slot count;

means for decrementing said slot count when a communication medium is idle;

means for transmitting data, by a terminal over a shared contention-based wireless communication medium using a media access control protocol, if a slot count is equal to a triggering event, wherein said slot count is a count of a number of time slots in a back-off cycle and wherein said back-off cycle has a fixed number of said time slots and wherein said triggering event is one of a possible plurality of transmission opportunities for said terminal and wherein said back-off window is fixed;

means for selecting a random number if said data transmission was not successful;

means for comparing said random number to a threshold;

means for selecting a new triggering event responsive to a failed data transmission, wherein said new triggering event is selected based on said comparison; replacing said triggering event with said new triggering event;

means for replacing said triggering event with said new triggering event; and

reusing said triggering event in a subsequent back-off cycles responsive to a successful data transmission, said successful data transmission is a data transmission that was acknowledged in a previous back-off cycle.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:

means for determining if said slot count is equal to said triggering event; and

means for determining if there is data to transmit if said slot count is equal to said triggering event.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein said random number is in a first interval.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein said new triggering event is selected from a set of integers in a second interval.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein a greatest integer in said second interval is one of less than and equal to a maximum size of an address space.

13. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein a condition of said communication medium being idle is based on a result of one of physical carrier sensing and virtual carrier sensing.