Patent ID: 8837478

Claim:
An access point comprising: a packet generation module configured to generate a multi-user request-to-send packet for transmission to each of N remote nodes, wherein the multi-user request-to-send packet includes a plurality of addresses, each of the plurality of addresses is for a respective one of M of the N remote nodes, N is an integer greater than one, and M is an integer (i) less than or equal to N, and (ii) greater than or equal to 1; a packet detection module configured to detect clear-to-send packets received from ones of the N remote nodes; and a downlink control module configured to, based on the plurality of addresses, control a downlink to the M of the N remote nodes after M clear-to-send packets are detected respectively from the M of the N remote nodes, wherein a transmission of a first one of the clear-to-send packets begins a short interframe space period after receiving the multi-user request-to-send packet, transmissions of a remainder of the clear-to-send packets are sequential, and start times of each of the transmissions of the remainder of the clear-to-send packets is based on a transmission end time of the multi-user request-to-send packet, the short interframe space period, and a product of (i) a number of previously transmitted clear-to-send packets, and (ii) a sum of an amount of time to transmit one of the clear-to-send packets and the short interframe space period.