Hybrid coordination function (HCF) access through tiered contention and overlapped wireless cell mitigation

A method for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:

• assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame;
• and
• transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing the value of the first inter-cell contention-free period.

A system for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:

• means for assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame;
• and
• the first access point station in the first cell for transmitting a beacon packet containing the value of the first inter-cell contention-free period, wherein the beacon packet is for an overlapped station that is occupying the first cell and the second cell, and for enabling the value for the first inter-cell contention-free period to be forwarded to member stations in the second cell, to delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after the first inter-cell contention free period has expired.