Patent ID: 7539169

Claim:
An apparatus for use in a wireless network environment and enabling a directed association of wireless clients to one of a plurality of wireless network access devices, comprising a transmit/receive unit for wireless communication with at least one remote client element, a network interface for communication with devices over a wired computer network, wherein the apparatus is operative to: receive an association request from a remote client element, wherein the association request from the remote client element includes a list of one or more wireless network access devices detected by the remote client element during a scan; compute a set of allowable wireless network access devices with which the remote client element may associate; transmit an association response to the remote client element, wherein the association response identifies at least one of the wireless network access devices common to both the list of one or more wireless network access devices detected by the remote client element during a scan and the computed set of allowable wireless network access devices; and establish and maintain, in an access point mode, wireless connections with remote client elements to bridge wireless traffic between the remote client elements and the computer network.