Patent ID: 7860054

Claim:
A method of using single-radio nodes and multi-radio nodes in a network having a control channel and at least one data channel, the method comprising: keeping at least one radio of said multi-radio nodes tuned to the control channel; releasing by said single-radio nodes and said multi-radio nodes the control channel and refraining from accessing said control channel for a predetermined time (CS) at a start of a period; and releasing the data channels used by the single-radio nodes and refraining from accessing said data channels for said predetermined time at the start of the period, wherein said single-radio nodes receive network signaling data and multicast data during said CS, wherein said period starts after a global channel release which forces all channel Network Access Vectors (NAVs) to be reset to a value of zero and wherein a data channel Network Access Vector (NAV) is a time period a node must refrain from transmitting on said data channel and wherein a control channel Network Access Vector (NAV) is a time period a node must refrain from transmitting on said control channel.