Patent ID: 7738877

Claim:
A method of network management, comprising: polling a first wireless access point of a plurality of wireless access points to acquire transmission characteristics; receiving transmission characteristics for the first wireless access point in response to the poll, the transmission characteristics comprising data representative of transmit power; receiving data representative of received signal strength of a signal sent from the first wireless access point received by a second of the plurality of wireless access points; determining a path loss based on the data representative of transmit power and data representative of signal strength; and varying the output power for the first of the plurality of access points based on the data representative of transmit power and path loss so as to establish a predetermined coverage area; receiving transmission characteristics including data representative of transmit power for each of the plurality of access points; receiving data representative of received signal strength for each of the plurality of wireless access points; determining a path loss for each of the wireless access points based on data representative of transmit power and data representative of received signal strength; and adjusting the output power of each the plurality of wireless access points based on the data representative of transmit power and path loss to establish predetermined coverage areas.