Patent ID: 7733866

Claim:
A transmitter for preparing a concatenated data packet for transmission to a plurality of receiving devices, comprising: means for preparing a preamble, a standard signal field comprising a length field for indicating a length of the concatenated data packet, a first signal field that describes characteristics of a first data packet and a second signal field that describes characteristics of a second data packet; and means for broadcasting the preamble, the standard signal field, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet to receiving devices able to decode the concatenated message and to receiving devices unable to decode the concatenated message, wherein legacy receiving devices use the length of the concatenated packet to defer to a wireless medium and the receiving devices able to decode concatenated messages detect use the first signal field to identify the first data packet succeeding the preamble as a concatenated data packet by detecting that the first signal field follows directly after the standard signal field, wherein the preamble, the standard signal field, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet are transmitted in order, and wherein the first signal field is immediately followed in time by the first data packet and the second signal field is immediately followed in time by the second data packet.