Patent ID: 7965722

Claim:
A method of ensuring consistent communication of map allocations between a first device and a second device, the method comprising: receiving an active map from the first device at the second device, wherein the active map comprises at least one active data flow associated with the second device; storing active data flow changes to the map in an inactive map; receiving the inactive map at the second device; and receiving, at the second device, a command to switch from the active map to the inactive map; wherein each of the active and inactive maps specify at least two packet identifiers for at least one frequency channel, and each of the active and inactive maps specify, for each of the at least two packet identifiers, blocks of data that are used by the second device from the at least one active data flow and blocks of data that are unused by the second device from the at least one active data flow, such that packets with the at least two packet identifiers can be received by the second device, wherein each of the blocks of data is a proper subset of a packet.