Patent ID: 8942717
Filing Date: 2015-01-27
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: at a first access point (AP), receiving one or more current operational characteristics for each of one or more neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs; determining, by the first AP, a received signal strength for each of the one more neighbor APs; selecting, by the first AP, a predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs for transmission in a beacon, the reportable neighbor APs selected from the neighbor APs based on the one or more current operational characteristics received by the first AP from each of the one or more neighbor APs; transmitting, by the first AP to a client device, a beacon transmission, wherein the beacon transmission announces an availability of the corresponding selected predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs, wherein the beacon transmission includes for each of the one or more reportable neighbor APs, the corresponding one or more current operational characteristics received by the first AP from each of the one or more reportable neighbor APs, and the corresponding received signal strength; and in response to transmitting the beacon transmission to the client device, receiving, by the first AP from the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs, an indication that the client device performed an initial association with one of the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs.