In a communication network having a plurality of units and a distributed MAC protocol, wherein data is exchanged between units during at least some of the time slots in a succession of time slots, a method is provided for establishing a desired network configuration. The method includes the step of designating one of the units as a supervisory unit and the other units as non-supervisory units. Certain of the time slots are designated as supervisory priority slots. All of the non-supervisory units are required to monitor transmissions from the supervisory unit during each of the supervisory priority slots, and the supervisory unit is operated to transmit an instruction establishing the desired network configuration only during one of the supervisory priority slots.