In various embodiments, communication apparatuses and methods for providing robust communications are disclosed. For example, an exemplary apparatus for use in a communication system employing a plurality of different communication channels may include a first database of channel performance information embedded on a machine-readable and writable medium, wherein the first database includes a plurality of records with each record containing information relating to a wireless channel monitored by a Media Access Controller (MAC), input circuitry configured to receive information from a plurality of MACs monitoring their respective wireless channels such that each record of the first database contains channel performance information for a respective wireless channel, and output circuitry configured to provide the channel performance information to a plurality of applications-level executable programs running on one or more computers.