Provided are methods by which multiple devices self-form a communication network and self-coordinate their access to communication media. In these methods, an individual node maintains its knowledge of other nodes in its vicinity and knowledge of those nodes' scheduled activities to an adequate degree of details. Such knowledge can be obtained by receiving control signals from nodes that are within the range of wireless communication. Examples of such knowledge include the identities of the nodes in the vicinity, the nodes' scheduled times of control message transmission and/or reception, the nodes' scheduled times of application data transmission and/or reception, etc. Such knowledge can be embodied in the form of a memory module of a computing device.