Patent ID: 7295537

Claim:
Apparatus for use by a wireless device in a wireless communications environment including multiple access points and stations, wherein stations gain network access by associating with one of the access points, comprising: logic for associating the wireless device with a current access point on one channel; logic for ascertaining, by the wireless device, whether the wireless device should attempt to associate with an alternative access point operating on an alternative channel, the ascertaining logic operating at least in-part on an indication of an amount by which signal strengths of transmissions from the alternative access point has been reduced by that alternative access point; logic for requesting association with the alternative access point operating on the alternative channel if it is ascertained that the wireless device should attempt to associate with said alternative access point; and logic operative to backoff transmission power relative to maximum transmission power by an amount indicated by the alternative access point if the alternative access point indicates that the wireless device can become associated with the alternative access point.