US Patent 9860882 Variable downlink-uplink boundary

A method of operating an end node to communicate with a central node, the method comprising: wirelessly receiving, a beacon signal periodically-transmitted from the central node; each beacon signal denoting the start of a single frame; each frame being organized to include a downlink (DL) phase which precedes an uplink (UL) phase; and a payload of the beacon signal including an offset which represents a starting time of the UL phase. The method further comprises: generating a message; selecting, unbeknownst to the central node, at least one UL logical-channel, respectively; and wirelessly transmitting, during the UL phase, at least a portion of the message from the end node over the selected at least one UL logical-channel according to a slotted ALOHA technique.