Abstract: According to one aspect of the invention, a method is provided in which a control channel used for transmitting control information is partitioned into a plurality of subchannels each of which is operated at a specific data rate. For each of one or more user terminals, one of the subchannels is selected based on one or more selection criteria for transmitting control information from an access point to the respective user terminal. Control information is transmitted from the access point to a user terminal on a particular subchannel selected for the respective user terminal. At the user terminal, one or more subchannels are decoded to obtain control information designated for the user terminal.

Abstract: According to one aspect of the invention, a method is provided in which a control channel used for transmitting control information is partitioned into a plurality of subchannels each of which is operated at a specific data rate. For each of one or more user terminals, one of the subchannels is selected based on one or more selection criteria for transmitting control information from an access point to the respective user terminal. Control information is transmitted from the access point to a user terminal on a particular subchannel selected for the respective user terminal. At the user terminal, one or more subchannels are decoded to obtain control information designated for the user terminal.

Abstract: Embodiments addressing MAC processing for efficient use of high throughput systems are disclosed. In one aspect, a protocol stack is disclosed comprising one or more of the following: an adaptation layer, a data link control layer, a physical layer, and a layer manager. In another aspect, physical layer feedback is used for adaptation layer processing. In one embodiment, physical layer feedback is used for segmentation. In another embodiment, physical layer feedback is used for multicast mapping onto one or more unicast channels. In another aspect, a data unit for transmission from a first station to a second station comprises zero or more complete sub-data units, zero or one partial sub-data units from a prior transmission, and zero or one partial sub-data units to fill the data unit. In one embodiment, a pointer may be used to indicate the location of any complete sub-data units.

Abstract: A multi-antenna transmitting entity transmits data to a single- or multi-antenna receiving entity using (1) a steered mode to direct the data transmission toward the receiving entity or (2) a pseudo-random transmit steering (PRTS) mode to randomize the effective channels observed by the data transmission across the subbands. For transmit diversity, the transmitting entity uses different pseudo-random steering vectors across the subbands but the same steering vector across a packet for each subband. The receiving entity does not need to have knowledge of the pseudo-random steering vectors or perform any special processing. For spatial spreading, the transmitting entity uses different pseudo-random steering vectors across the subbands and different steering vectors across the packet for each subband. Only the transmitting and receiving entities know the steering vectors used for data transmission. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and disclosed.