Patent ID: 8559323

Claim:
A method comprising: at a wireless network access point device, generating control parameters defining usage of a plurality of channels in an allocated bandwidth during a downlink transmission interval, the control parameters comprising information indicating channel assignments from the allocated bandwidth over which multiple downlink transmissions to different wireless client devices can occur in the allocated bandwidth concurrently during the downlink transmission interval at respective data rates selected according to respective bandwidth capabilities of the client devices receiving the respective downlink transmissions, wherein the generating control parameters further comprises: generating the control parameters to include information indicating that, during the downlink transmission interval, one of the downlink transmissions will be sent in one channel or several adjacent channels bonded together to at least one wireless client device that has a higher bandwidth capability; and generating information indicating channel assignment of a subset of the channels for the downlink transmissions to the at least one client device having the higher bandwidth capability, the subset of the plurality of channels at least partially non-overlapping with one or more of the plurality of channels used for at least one of the downlink transmissions to at least one client device having lower bandwidth capability; transmitting on each of the plurality of channels in the allocated bandwidth in advance of the downlink transmission interval a control frame containing the control parameters; transmitting downlink data, during the downlink transmission interval, to the different client devices at the respective data rates corresponding to the respective bandwidth capabilities of the client devices, where at least one of the data rates is less than another of the data rates; and transmitting on the subset of channels from the access point device at least one message that is configured as an acknowledgment message sent on behalf of the higher bandwidth capable client device prior to an acknowledgment message being sent by the higher bandwidth capable client device.