Methods and systems for enabling communications from a station to an access point using a backoff counter and carrier sensing

A system for communicating with an access point, the system comprising a station comprising control circuitry configured to:

• receive, from an access point, a first signal including an indication of a plurality of channels, wherein the first signal is a downlink synchronization (DL SYNC) signal;
• modify, in response to receiving the first signal, an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) counter value;
• compare the UL OFDMA counter value to a threshold value;
• select, in response to determining the UL OFDMA counter value corresponds to the threshold value, a channel of the plurality of channels;
• determine whether the selected channel is busy or idle;
• in response to determining that the selected channel is busy, modify the UL OFDMA counter value;
• and
• in response to determining that the selected channel is idle, transmit a second signal using the selected channel.

A method for communicating with an access point, the method comprising:

• receiving at a station, from an access point, a first signal including an indication of a plurality of channels, wherein the first signal is a downlink synchronization (DL SYNC) signal;
• designating at the station, a subset of the plurality of channels, wherein each channel of the subset of the plurality of channels is determined to be idle;
• modifying at the station, an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) counter value based on how many channels there are in the subset of the plurality of channels;
• comparing the UL OFDMA counter value to a threshold value;
• selecting, in response to determining that the UL OFDMA counter value corresponds to the threshold value, a channel of the subset of the plurality of channels;
• and
• transmitting at the station, a second signal using the selected channel.