Apparatus and method for enabling discovery of wireless devices

An apparatus for communicating over a wireless network comprising a plurality of wireless devices, the apparatus comprising:

• a directional antenna system (322) configured to communicate over the wireless network in at least a first antenna sector and a second antenna sector;
• and
• a transceiver (324) configured to send signals to the first and second antenna sectors via the directional antenna, each signal comprising a first transmit beacon time slot (4P) and an associated first receive beacon time slot (4s) corresponding to the first antenna sector (40) and a second transmit beacon time slot (2P) and an associated second receive beacon time slot (2s) corresponding to the second antenna sector (20), the transceiver sending a first transmit beacon in the first transmit beacon time slot to the first antenna sector and a second transmit beacon in the second transmit beacon time slot to the second antenna sector;
• wherein the transceiver (324) receives a first receive beacon in the first receive beacon time slot (4sA) from a first wireless device located in the first antenna sector responding to the first transmit beacon;
• and
• wherein an additional first receive beacon time slot (4s) of the signal is associated with the first transmit beacon time slot (4P) to enable an additional wireless device in the first antenna sector to send an additional first receive beacon in response to a subsequent first transmit beacon included in the first transmit beacon time slot.

An apparatus for communicating over a wireless network comprising a plurality of wireless devices, the apparatus comprising:

• a directional antenna system (322) configured to communicate over a plurality of antenna sectors (10-40);
• and
• a transceiver (324) configured to send signals to the plurality of antenna sectors via the directional antenna, each signal comprising a superframe having a plurality of primary beacon time slots (1P-4P) and an associated plurality of secondary beacon time slots (1s-4s) corresponding to the plurality of antenna sectors, the transceiver sending a plurality of primary beacons in the plurality of primary beacon time slots and receiving at least one secondary beacon in one of the plurality of secondary beacon time slots (4sA) from a responsive wireless device (A) located in an antenna sector (40) associated with the received secondary beacon;
• wherein the one of the plurality of secondary beacon time slots (4As) is assigned to the responsive wireless device and an additional secondary beacon time slot (4s), associated with the antenna sector of the responsive wireless device, is added to the superframe.