Patent ID: 11962444
Assignee: MARVELL ASIA PTE LTD
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method for generating a physical layer (PHY) data unit that conforms to a first communication protocol, the method comprising:
generating, at a first communication device, a PHY preamble of the PHY data unit to include:
a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol corresponding to a legacy signal field, the legacy signal field including i) a length subfield, and ii) a rate subfield, wherein the length subfield and the rate subfield indicate a duration of the PHY data unit, and wherein the legacy signal field is formatted according to a legacy second communication protocol,
a second OFDM symbol corresponding to a duplicate of the legacy signal field, the second OFDM symbol following the first OFDM symbol in time, and
a plurality of additional OFDM symbols corresponding to a non-legacy signal field;

in response to determining that the PHY data unit is to be generated according to a non-range extension PHY mode defined by the first communication protocol, generating, at the first communication device, the plurality of additional OFDM symbols to use a first modulation pattern; and
in response to determining that the PHY data unit is to be generated according to a range extension PHY mode define by the first communication protocol, generating, at the first communication device, the plurality of additional OFDM symbols to use a second modulation pattern to signal that the PHY data unit is generated according to the range extension PHY mode;
generating, at the communication device, a PHY data portion of the PHY data unit; and
transmitting, by the communication device, the PHY data unit via a wireless communication channel.