Patent ID: 7583933

Claim:
A method for use within a wireless communication network, the method comprising: determining interference on a current wireless channel of a plurality of wireless channels by: determining an invalid station address that corresponds to an invalid station and that does not correspond to the address of an affiliated station; assigning the invalid station address to a holding packet; transmitting the holding packet on the current wireless channel to allocate a transmit period to the invalid station; and measuring the interference on the current wireless channel during the transmit period allocated to the invalid station; obtaining channel spectrum information from at least one affiliated station via the current wireless channel of a plurality of wireless channels, wherein the channel spectrum information indicates a level of interference on at least one of the plurality of wireless channels within the channel spectrum; interpreting the channel spectrum information to determine a desired wireless channel of the plurality of wireless channels; and providing a packet to the at least one affiliated station via the current wireless channel, wherein the packet indicates that the access point will change to the desired wireless channel.