Coordinated beacon period (BP) merging for distributed wireless networks

The application describes a method to merge two wireless networks in which each terminal gets a beacon slot within the beacon period. In order to merge two networks, the beacon slots have to be time-coordinated such that the beacon slots of the first network are completed before the beacon slots of the second network begin. The method includes transmitting a beacon frame having a beacon period switch information element which instructs the neighboring terminals in the first network of the need to merge, provides clock synchronization information; provides the time of the merge; and informs the neighboring terminals which beacon slot to occupy in the beacon period of the merged network. In order to deal with hidden terminals, the information needs to be forwarded terminal-to-terminal within each network.