Patent ID: 7616617

Claim:
A method of operation of an access point (AP) for transmitting beacon transmissions to different sectors in a wireless local area network (WLAN) communications system operating on a plurality of channels comprising: a) at a first virtual target beacon transmission time (TBTT) transmitting a first beacon signal on a first channel in one sector, wherein the first virtual TBTT is calculated using a first virtual timing synchronization function (TSF) timer, wherein the first virtual TSF timer value is calculated using a first channel number of the first channel, an inter-channel offset and a master TSF timer value, wherein the master TSF timer value comprises a real TSF timer continually recorded at the AP; b) at a second virtual TBTT transmitting a second beacon signal on at least one second channel in at least one other sector, wherein the second virtual TBTT is calculated using a second virtual timing synchronization function (TSF) timer, wherein the second virtual TSF timer value is calculated using a second channel number of the second channel, the inter-channel offset and the master TSF timer value; c) repeating a) through b) after a predetermined beacon interval.