Patent ID: 7149520

Claim:
A program product for use by a wireless device, the program product comprising a computer readable medium having embodied therein a computer program for storing data, the computer program for use by an access point in a wireless networking communications environment, the computer program comprising; logic for scanning a plurality of radio frequency channels during a scan interval; logic for monitoring each of the scanned channels for indication of utilization of ones of the channels from other access points on the plurality of radio frequency channels during the scan interval; logic for maintaining a channel map having an entry for each of the plurality of radio frequency channels, and if one or more messages was received on a channel, the corresponding entry further including an AP-ID for at least one of the access points that sent a message on the channel; logic for selecting a channel from the channel map based at least in-part on whether an indication of utilization of the selected channel was detected; logic for transmitting messages on the selected channel during a claim interval prior to utilizing the selected channel for normal communications, at least one message indicative of an intent to utilize the selected channel; logic for monitoring for messages from other access points on the selected channel during the claim interval, for a message indicative of an intent to utilize the selected channel; and logic for ascertaining whether the wireless device should commence communications with other wireless devices on the selected channel based upon characteristics of any messages received on the channel.