Patent ID: 8644281

Claim:
A method of accessing a channel in a wireless local area network, the method comprising: receiving, by a device, a channel switch announcement frame to advertise a channel switch from an access point (AP), the channel switch announcement frame including an operation element, the operation element including a channel type field, a first frequency segment field and a second frequency segment field, the channel type field indicating a use of two 80 MHz channels, the first frequency segment field indicating a center frequency of a primary 80 MHz channel, the second frequency segment field indicating a center frequency of a secondary 80 MHz channel, the primary 80 MHz channel not being contiguous with the secondary 80 MHz channel; performing, by the device, backoff on the primary 80 MHz channel to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP); determining, by the device, whether the secondary 80 MHz channel is idle during an interval immediately preceding the start of the TXOP only after the TXOP is obtained; and transmitting, by the device, data by using the primary 80 MHz channel and the secondary 80 MHz channel to the AP during the TXOP if it is determined that the secondary 80 MHz channel is idle.