Patent ID: 7298691

Claim:
In a network of stations, a method of operating a station comprises: transmitting data across a plurality of different connections between any of a plurality of transmitters and any of a plurality of receivers; using a plurality of carriers to transmit data between a transmitter and a receiver; maintaining, for a connection over a channel between a transmitter in the station and a receiver in another station, a channel map provided by the receiver based on characteristics of the channel for the connection and having an associated channel map index; having the transmitter use the channel map to encode and modulate frame data in a data frame for transmission over the channel to the receiver, wherein the channel map provides for the encoding and modulating for at least some carriers for at least one pair to be different from that used for the same carriers for at least one other pair and having the transmitter send the associated channel map index in the data frame to identify to the receiver the channel map used by the transmitter for encoding and modulating frame data in the data frame.