Patent ID: 8553579

Claim:
A multicarrier packet communication transceiver comprising: a receiver adapted to receive a packet including a header portion and a data portion, wherein the header portion indicates one or more communications parameters that were used for the data portion of the packet and includes a receiver station identifier, and the data portion was used for communication of a number of data bytes at a data rate, the receiver station identifier usable to determine whether the receiver is an intended recipient of the packet, the receiver entering a low power mode when it is not an intended recipient of the packet, wherein the header portion also includes a legacy header portion containing a Rate field indicating a legacy data rate value and a Length field indicating a legacy number of data bytes, a number of data bytes communicated in the data portion of the packet is different than the legacy number of data bytes indicated in the legacy header portion of the packet, and a data rate used in the data portion of the packet is different than the legacy data rate value indicated in the legacy header portion of the packet.