Patent ID: 8837524

Claim:
A system comprising: a physical layer module configured to communicate at a first data rate via a channel, wherein the channel includes (i) a first sub-channel and (ii) a second sub-channel of the channel, receive a first packet including a first preamble transmitted at the first data rate via (i) the first sub-channel and (ii) the second sub-channel, wherein the first preamble includes (i) a first short training field having a first periodicity and (ii) a first remainder, and receive a second packet including a second preamble transmitted at a second data rate via (i) the first sub-channel or (ii) the second sub-channel, wherein the second data rate is less than the first data rate, wherein the second preamble includes (i) a second short training field having a second periodicity and (ii) a second remainder, wherein the second periodicity is equal to the first periodicity divided by an integer greater than one, and wherein the first remainder is different than the second remainder; and a processing module configured to process (i) the first preamble transmitted at the first data rate and (ii) at least a portion of the second preamble transmitted at the second data rate.