Methods and apparatus for synchronizing beacon transmissions in a neighbor awareness network (NAN)

A method configured to be implemented with a first wireless communication device, the method comprising:

• determining, in a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) environment that includes a plurality of wireless communication devices arranged in a cluster, a transmission time based at least partially on an operation that separates the wireless communication devices of the cluster into multiple groups, the operation including
• assigning the first wireless communication device into a group of the multiple groups based at least partially on a received indicator of relative distance with respect to at least a second wireless communication device of the wireless communication devices of the cluster;
• and
• transmitting a synchronization beacon in the NAN environment responsive to the determined transmission time.

A computer-readable memory device comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, implement a system in a first wireless communication device to:

• determine, in a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) environment that includes a plurality of wireless communication devices arranged in a cluster, a transmission time based at least partially on an operation that separates the wireless communication devices of the cluster into multiple groups, including to
• obtain a grouping characteristic of the cluster,
• obtain a hop count for the first wireless communication device with respect to an anchor master for the cluster, and
• compute the transmission time for a synchronization beacon based at least partially on (i) the obtained grouping characteristic and (ii) the obtained hop count;
• and
• transmit the synchronization beacon in the NAN environment responsive to the determined transmission time.