Patent ID: 8649386

Claim:
A device for enabling communication with a gateway device within a user premises, the gateway device controlling communication of one or more associated endpoint devices over a local area network and controlling access and communication to a wide area network to deliver an application service to the one or more associated endpoint devices, the device comprising: a wireless transceiver interface for bidirectional wireless data communication at the local area network; a wired interface for wired communication; a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver interface and the wired interface for conversion and control of data communicated between the wireless transceiver interface and data communicated via the wired interface; storage coupled to the processor; and programming executable by the processor contained in the storage, wherein execution of the programming causes the processor to receive instructions from the gateway device via the wireless transceiver interface or the wired interface to configure the processor to implement its conversion and communication control functions in a manner to communicate with the gateway device via the wireless transceiver interface, the wireless transceiver interface providing a single wireless interface link directly connecting the device and the gateway device, the single wireless interface link including i) a local area network link-layer sub interface that provides the gateway device access to the local area network through the device and ii) a wide area network link-layer sub interface that provides the gateway device access to the wide area network through the device, wherein the gateway device communicates with at least one of the one or more associated endpoint devices through the local area network link-layer sub interface, wherein the device is positioned logically between the wide area network and the gateway device.