of conflict in a second method each coordinator includes the length of the beacon period 510 a length of its beacon 502 and a starting time of its beacon with respect to the beginning of the superframe in its beacon itself when the coordinator joins the network then as each additional coordinator joins the network the additional coordinator can select its beacon to be non conflicting with previously established beacons this selection can also be made randomly from the remaining beacon free time within the beacon period 510 a third method partitions the beacon period into equal sized time slots and each coordinator randomly selects a free slot for its beacon transmission time it should be noted that the ieee 802 15 4 2003 standard allows beacons to have various size therefore the slots have to be at least as long as the longest possible beacon time or a single beacon can occupy several consecutive beacon slots in a fourth method a coordinator senses the channel during a selected beacon slot period for several consecutive superframes and then selects the beacon slot if the channel remains idle during this time in a fifth method the parent coordinator detects beacon conflicts and broadcasts the beacon conflict to other coordinators in response to the notifications the child coordinators can select their beacon transmission times the parameters related to the beacon period can be specified in the mlme start parameter list see table 58 of the ieee 802 15 4 2003 standard incorporated herein by reference solving the indirect conflict problem is more difficult because a coordinator cannot directly receive beacons from other coordinators at the indirect conflict area 402 there are two ways that the indirect conflict problem can be.