HEW master station and method for communicating in accordance with a scheduled OFDMA technique on secondary channels

A method performed by an access point that is part of a basic service set (BSS) that includes a plurality of HE stations and a plurality of legacy stations, the BSS operating on a primary channel and one or more secondary channels, the method comprising:

• communicating with one or more of the HE stations on one or more of the secondary channels in accordance with a scheduled orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) communication technique when the primary channel is utilized for communication with one or more of the legacy devices;
• refraining from communicating with the legacy station on any of the secondary channels when concurrently communicating with the one or more of the HE stations on one or more of the secondary channels and the legacy station on the primary channel;
• and
• communicating with the one or more of the HE stations on one or more of the secondary channels in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access communication technique while concurrently communicating with the legacy station utilizing only the primary channel in accordance with a contention-based communication technique.

A high-efficiency (HE) station configured to operate as part of a basic-service set (BSS) that includes an access point and a plurality of legacy stations, the BSS operating on a primary channel and one or more secondary channels, the (HE) station comprising hardware processing circuitry that is configured to:

• communicate with the access point on one or more of the secondary channels in accordance with a scheduled orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) communication technique when the primary channel is utilized for communication with one or more of the legacy devices;
• receive an HE control transmission on the one or more secondary channels at the beginning of a HE control period, the HE control transmission including a schedule for communications with at least some of the HE devices during the HE control period on one or more of the secondary channels;
• and
• either receive downlink data during the HE control period on the one or more secondary channels based on scheduling information provided in the HE control transmission, or transmit uplink data during the HE control period on the one or more secondary channels based on the scheduling information provided in the HE control transmission.