Patent ID: 8582485

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a baseband processing module for generating a multi-user request to send (mRTS) frame, wherein the mRTS frame includes a plurality of clear to send (CTS) response instructions corresponding respectively to each of a plurality of wireless communication devices and further includes cluster information for a plurality of clusters for use, respectively, by the plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein each cluster of the plurality of clusters is based upon a tone mapping of at least one channel, the at least one channel being situated with a band of a plurality of bands; and a plurality of antennae: transmitting the mRTS frame to the plurality of wireless communication devices; and in response to the mRTS frame, receiving a plurality of CTS responses, based on a respective scheduling of each of the plurality of CTS response instructions, from the plurality of wireless communication devices or from a subset of the plurality of wireless communication devices to provide an airtime reservation with the each of the plurality of wireless communication devices or the subset thereof.