Patent ID: 8842560

Claim:
A method for extending a client set using a femto-proxy architecture, the method comprising: receiving a wireless wide area network (WWAN) communication at a femto-proxy system for a designated one of a plurality of access terminals communicatively coupled with the femto-proxy system, the femto-proxy system comprising: a femtocell configured to communicatively couple the access terminals with the WWAN, the access terminals configured to operate on the WWAN in a WWAN active mode or a WWAN idle mode; and an out-of-band (OOB) femto-proxy configured to communicatively couple the plurality of access terminals with a piconet having the OOB femto-proxy designated as a master, the access terminals configured to operate on the piconet in an OOB connected mode or an OOB inactive mode; determining, subsequent to receiving the WWAN communication at the femto-proxy system, that the designated access terminal is operating in the OOB inactive mode with an inactive OOB physical communications link between the femto-proxy system and the designated access terminal; directing, based at least in part on the receipt the WWAN communication and the determination that the designated access terminal is operating in the OOB inactive mode, the designated access terminal to operate in the OOB connected mode; and establishing an active OOB physical communications link between the femto-proxy system and the designated access terminal.