Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising an access point in a wireless network capable of transmitting sounding packets to at least one wireless station in said wireless network, wherein said wireless station is capable of responding to said access point with information indicating the combination of antennas to use in communicating between said access point and said wireless station.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for a combined rate and transmission (TX) antenna selection mechanism are described. In one embodiment, the method includes switching between TX antenna combination during a high throughput (HTP) burst transmission of, for example, a physical layer (PHY) aggregated packet. In one embodiment, switching between TX antenna pairs of various combinations of two out of three antennas is performed during the HTP burst transmission. Following the HTP burst transmission, in one embodiment, a block acknowledgement (ACK) is received regarding the HTP burst transmission. In one embodiment, the block ACK is analyzed to select a TX antenna combination. In one embodiment, a TX antenna combination having a lowest packet error rate (PER) is selected according to the block ACK. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A wireless station utilizes available metrics to determine whether to request a direct link with another wireless station.

Abstract: A method for improving the hidden-node problem in a wireless network comprises detecting a power back-off initiated at a data portion of a transmitted packet.

Abstract: A method of operation in a communications node is disclosed. The method of operation includes the communications node scanning a plurality of channels simultaneously during a period of time, with the communications node selecting for signal processing a first signal, in a first channel in the plurality of channels, in a first sub-period of time in the period of time. The method of operation includes the communications node selecting for signal processing a second signal, in a second channel in the plurality of channels, in a second sub-period of time in the period of time. Embodiments of the present invention include but are not limited to communications nodes and devices, subsystems, and systems equipped to operate in the above described manner.

Abstract: In various embodiments, the present invention includes a method for direct spread modulating data for wireless transmission at a 5 Gigahertz band or other frequency bands via wireless devices. Such wireless transmissions may occur in a wireless network having protection mechanisms to allow such wireless devices to co-exist with other devices not capable of such modulation.