Patent ID: 7738876

Claim:
A method for establishing communications in a wireless local area network comprising: identifying one or more frequency channels from a plurality of frequency channels, wherein the one or more frequency channels are identified that have a least number of access point (AP) devices operating on the frequency channel; obtaining at least one channel-specific measurement for each of the one or more frequency channels, wherein the at least one channel specific measurement includes a proximity factor each AP device on each of the one or more frequency channels, wherein the proximity factor provides an estimate of distance of the AP device to a present AP device; for each of the one or more frequency channels, identifying an AP device that has the proximity factor with an estimated distance indicating that the AP device is the closest to the present access point (AP) out of all of the AP devices on the frequency channel; determining which AP device of the identified AP devices is the furthest away from the present AP device based upon the estimated distance indicated by the proximity factor; automatically selecting a frequency channel from the one or more frequency channels by taking into account the at least one channel-specific measurement for each of the one or more frequency channels, wherein the frequency channel is selected that has the identified AP device that is determined to be the furthest away from the present AP device; and configuring the present AP device to transmit and receive data on the selected frequency channel, wherein the present AP device communicates data with a present station (STA) device within a wireless local area network.