CHANNEL SCANNING AND CHANNEL SELECTION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

摘要

A method and apparatus to select the best channel of a wireless network for data communication at any given time, during normal operation of the network, is described. The network may be an IEEE standard 802.11 compliant network. Channel scanning may be performed in any station on the wireless network, such as an access point (AP) or a mobile station, or both. Channel scanning may be performed during data communication idle time, or simultaneously with data communication on the network. The technique can be implemented in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system, where the antenna or antennas used for channel scanning can be selected dynamically during operation, to optimize one or more performance characteristics.