Patent ID: 8457124

Claim:
A method for communicating information, comprising: queuing a data packet in a software queue; providing the data packet to a hardware queue in an IEEE 802.11-compliant chipset for inclusion in an IEEE 802.11 frame, wherein the data packet is provided based on available space in the hardware queue, and wherein the IEEE 802.11 frame is compliant with an IEEE 802.11 communication protocol; providing time-slot control information to the IEEE 802.11-compliant chipset based on a timing-synchronization signal, thereby gating the release of the data packet from the hardware queue for transmission in the IEEE 802.11 frame in a communication channel by the IEEE 802.11-compliant chipset using time division multiple access (TDMA); and communicating timing-synchronization information associated with the timing-synchronization signal to another IEEE 802.11-compliant chipset in a communication system using in-band communication in the communication channel; wherein the timing-synchronization information is provided to the IEEE 802.11-compliant chipset for inclusion in a standard header field in the IEEE 802.11 frame that includes the data packet; and wherein the time-slot synchronization information facilitates common timing of the communication channel using TDMA.