Patent ID: 8396063

Claim:
A process for a multithread media access controller (MAC) receiving a single stream of multiplexed receive digitized quadrature PHY data formed from the canonical sequencing of n streams of simultaneous session data, each said session data stream having packets derived from a separate wireless receiver, the packets having, in sequence, a MAC source address, a MAC destination address, a sequence number, packet data, and a CRC, each said session associated with a unique thread identifier generated by a thread ID generator, an associated session MAC address, and associated context data from a previous processing step of said packet, said process operating separately and independently for each said stream of session data, and including the steps: receiving said multiplexed receive digitized quadrature PHY data associated with a particular MAC destination address and placing only said packet data for said unique session MAC address into a unique packet buffer associated with said session MAC address and verifying a CRC, said receiving step not placing said packet data into said packet buffer when said packet MAC destination address does not match the MAC address associated with said session; when said verified CRC is correct, sending an acknowledgement and accepting only said packet data into said packet buffer associated with said MAC destination address; where said multithread MAC controller is operative on only one of said n streams of simultaneous session data and said associated context data at a particular moment in time, and is operative on a different one of said n streams of simultaneous session data and said associated context data thereafter, said process operating on each one of said canonical sequences of said multiplexed digitized quadrature PHY packet data for a substantially uniform duration of time; where said n is at least 2, and where said process uses said thread identifier to determine which said session to process.