Method and apparatus for managing a wireless network access point beacon

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs,
• the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:
• determine to one or more of (1) cause, at least in part, a beacon pointer associated with a beacon of a wireless network access point to be transmitted and (2) cause, at least in part, a beacon schedule associated with the beacon of the wireless network access point to be adjusted based, at least in part, on a derivation of one or more other beacon schedules associated with one or more other beacons of one or more other wireless network access points to avoid a conflict between the beacon schedule and the one or more other beacon schedules,
• wherein the determination to cause the adjustment of the beacon schedule is based, at least in part, on one or more of a determined conflicting beacon schedule and a received indication of a potential conflict between the beacon and the one or more other beacons;
• determine an average signaling rate;
• process the average signaling rate to determine if the signaling rate meets a predetermined criteria;
• and
• cause, at least in part, the occupancy level of the wireless medium to be determined based, at least in part, on a determination that the average signaling rate fails to meet the predetermined criteria;
• wherein the indication of the potential conflict between the beacon and the one or more other beacons is received by way of a mobile device in communication with the wireless network access point and at least one of the one or more other wireless network access points;
• wherein the beacon pointer is transmitted by way of shared channel arbitration transmitting broadcast signaling or by way of unicast addressed frames.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform the following:

• determine to one or more of (1) cause, at least in part, a beacon pointer associated with a beacon of a wireless network access point to be transmitted and (2) cause, at least in part, a beacon schedule associated with the beacon of the wireless network access point to be adjusted based, at least in part, on a derivation of one or more other beacon schedules associated with one or more other beacons of one or more other wireless network access points to avoid a conflict between the beacon schedule and the one or more other beacon schedules,
• wherein the determination to cause the adjustment of the beacon is based, at least in part, on one or more of a determined conflicting beacon schedule and a received indication of a potential conflict between the beacon and the one or more other beacons;
• determine an average signaling rate;
• process the average signaling rate to determine if the signaling rate meets a predetermined criteria;
• and
• cause, at least in part, the occupancy level of the wireless medium to be determined based, at least in part, on a determination that the average signaling rate fails to meet the predetermined criteria;
• wherein the indication of the potential conflict between the beacon and the one or more other beacons is received by way of a mobile device in communication with the wireless network access point and at least one of the one or more other wireless network access points;
• wherein the beacon pointer is transmitted by way of shared channel arbitration transmitting broadcast signaling or by way of unicast addressed frames.