Patent ID: 7167708

Claim:
Apparatus for use by an access point in a wireless networking communications environment comprising: logic for scanning a plurality of radio frequency channels during a scan interval; logic for receiving messages from other access points on the plurality of radio frequency channels during the scan interval; logic for maintaining a channel map having an entry for each of the plurality of radio frequency channels, and if one or more messages was received on a channel, the corresponding entry further including an AP-ID for at least one of the access points that sent a message on the channel; logic for selecting a channel from the channel map; logic for transmitting messages on the selected channel during a claim interval; logic for receiving messages from other access points on the selected channel during the claim interval; logic for ascertaining whether the apparatus should commence communications with other wireless devices on the selected channel based at least in-part upon characteristics of the messages received on the channel, and such that unnecessary channel overlap with the other access points is mitigated.