Distributed transmission resource allocation

A network node comprising:

• a transceiver configured to:
• transmit a first packet comprising a list of candidate allocable cells;
• receive a second packet comprising a list of mutually allocated cells, the list of mutually allocated cells being a subset of the list of candidate allocable cells;
• and
• broadcast an acknowledgement packet that includes a cell list field that specifies the list of mutually allocated cells;
• wherein the first packet is an ADD request further comprising a number of cells requested by the network node, wherein the acknowledgement packet further comprises the number of cells, and wherein the second packet is a response message further comprising a return code indicating whether the ADD request was successful.

A network node comprising:

• a transceiver configured to receive a first packet comprising a list of candidate allocable cells;
• and
• a circuit coupled to the transceiver, the circuit configured to select a subset of the candidate allocable cells to be a list of mutually allocated cells;
• the transceiver further configured to:
• transmit a second packet comprising the list of mutually allocated cells;
• and
• receive an acknowledgement packet comprising the list of mutually allocated cells;
• wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit an ADD request comprising a number of cells requested for allocation and an empty cell list, wherein the first packet is a response message, the response message further comprising a return code further indicating whether the ADD request was successful, wherein the second packet is a confirmation reply, the confirmation reply comprising a return code indicating whether the response message was successful.