Patent ID: 7751420

Claim:
An access point connected to a wireless network, to which multiple access points are connected to communicate with each other by transmitting and receiving signals in a first format and each access point communicates with one or more client devices by transmitting and receiving signals in a second format over a wireless channel; said access point including: a management table storing information representing the client devices connected to the access points; a first communication unit for receiving a signal in the second format from any of the client devices, as a first signal; a destination access point decision unit for identifying the access point connected to the client device to which the received first signal is addressed, according to address information in a header of the received first signal and by referring to the management table; a storage unit for storing queues of data frames of first signals which have been received from the client devices connected to the access point, and which have not been transmitted to other access points, each queue containing second data frames addressed to a different access point; said destination access point decision unit adding the data frame of the received first signal to the corresponding queue; an access point list listing names of the access points to which the data frames of the first signals which have been received from the client devices connected to the access point, and which have not been transmitted to other access points, are destined in the order in which the data frames destined to the respective access points are received; said destination access point decision unit checking whether the destination access point to which the data frame of the received first signal is destined is included in the access point list, and adding, if the access point to which data frame of the received first signal is destined is not included in the access point list, the name of the access point to which the data frame of the received first signal is destined, to the bottom of the access point list; an encapsulator for extracting the name of the access point at the top of the access point list, deleting the extracted name of the access point from the access point list; and placing all the data frames in the queue destined to the access point identified by the extracted name, in a data area of a second signal in the first format; and a second communication unit for transmitting the second signal in the first format to the access point identified by the extracted name.