Patent ID: 8254336

Claim:
A method of avoiding interference from independent stations in a mesh comprising: in a mesh network, requesting by a first Mesh Point (MP) operating on a same channel as an independent Access Point (AP) a change of control channel for said first MP; wherein said requesting a change of control channel for said first MP comprises splicing the control channel to operate on two different physical channels in order to avoid interference from mesh-independent stations; wherein a second MP receiving the request for a control channel change from said first MP performs one of the group consisting of accepting the request for a control channel change, forwarding the request for a control channel change, and declining the request for a control channel change; considering, by said first MP, said control channel request as authorized when the request is accepted and one of the group consisting of: tuning a control radio to the requested channel by said second MP and wherein said second MP forwards an authorized request; tuning the control radio to the requested channel by said second MP when said second MP accepts an authorized request and has no other mesh MPs; and tuning a control radio to the requested channel and using said requested channel for control traffic by said second MP when said second MP accept the authorized request and has other mesh MPs.