Patent ID: 8797881

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of transceivers for sending and receiving data on a plurality of channels; a plurality of detectors coupled with the plurality of transceivers and having detector outputs; and a controller coupled with the plurality of detectors, the controller comprising a mid-packet clear channel assessment circuit configured to determine a subset of the plurality of channels that are available for communication; wherein the plurality of detectors monitor the plurality of channels; wherein the controller is operable to receive a signal on at least one of the plurality of channels, the signal comprising data representative of a request to establish communications on a set of channels selected from the plurality of channels; wherein the controller determines from monitoring the plurality of detector outputs which channels from the set of channels are available for establishing communications; wherein the controller sends a response to the request to establish communications on at least one of the channels available for establishing communications; wherein the response comprises data representative of which channels from the set of channels and from the subset of channels are available channels for establishing communications; wherein the response comprises data representative of which channels from the set of channels are unavailable channels for establishing communications; and wherein the response comprises data representative of a time period when the unavailable channels are expected to be available.