| CPC H04L 43/16 (2013.01) [H04W 74/02 (2013.01); H04W 84/18 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method comprising:
allocating, by a first node of a network, a number of shared transit/receive transmit/receive slots (STRSs) with contention-based access;
transmitting a beacon message advertising the number of STRSs;
receiving an association request from a second node via one of the number of STRSs; and
in response to receiving the association request, changing the number of STRSs from a first value to a second value different from the first value, wherein, when the second node joins the network, one of the number of STRSs is changed to a receive-only slot, and another one of the number of STRSs is changed to a transmit-only slot.
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