Patent ID: 8369657

Claim:
A method comprising: computing, with a processor, a plurality of channel cost metrics for one or more candidate sets of radio frequency (RF) channels, wherein each candidate set of RF channels comprises two or more contiguous RF channels in a frequency band that are available for use by a wireless network in a wider bandwidth mode of operation that combines bandwidth of the contiguous RF channels, wherein the channel metrics are based on activity from wireless devices in each of the candidate sets of RF channels; selecting, based on one or more of the channel cost metrics, a particular set of RF channels for use by the wireless network in the wider bandwidth mode of operation, wherein the particular set of RF channels comprises a plurality of contiguous channels; and selecting, based on one or more of the channel cost metrics, one or more of the plurality of contiguous channels as a primary RF channel and one or more of the plurality of contiguous channels as a secondary RF channel both for use by the wireless network in the wider bandwidth mode, wherein the primary channel is one or more RF channels that are the lowest denomination of RF channels that a device uses when it is not operating in the wider bandwidth mode and a secondary channel is one or more RF channels adjacent to the primary channel.