Patent ID: 7463645

Claim:
A communications station operating at a first channel in a multiple-channel network having a plurality of different channels, the station adapted to: receive a medium-request signal; extract information explicitly conveyed within the medium-request signal; determine, from the extracted information, one of the plurality of different channels to be a requested channel to be reserved; and compare the requested to-be-reserved channel with the first channel, wherein: if the station determines that the requested to-be-reserved channel is sufficiently close to the first channel, then the station defers transmissions on the first channel for a specified duration as a result of receiving the medium-request signal; if the station determines that the requested to-be-reserved channel is not sufficiently close to the first channel, then the station does not defer transmissions on the first channel for the specified duration as a result of receiving the medium-request signal; the medium-request signal is a modified version of a legacy control frame according to an IEEE 802.11 standard or a related standard, wherein any difference between the medium-request signal and the legacy control frame is not apparent to a legacy station that conforms to the standard; and one difference is a modification to an address field in the legacy control frame such that the modified address field explicitly contains information identifying the requested to-be-reserved channel.