Patent ID: 8707396

Claim:
A method for performing re-association according to handover by a mobile node in a wireless local area network (WLAN) mesh network, the method comprising: transmitting, to at least one new node adjacent to the mobile node, a mesh re-association request message for re-association of the WLAN mesh network to establish a route among the mobile node, the at least one new node, and an old node, the mesh re-association request message comprising authentication request information for authentication of the mobile node; receiving, from the at least one new node, a mesh re-association reply message comprising an authentication reply to an authentication request, in response to the mesh re-association request message; and receiving data using an established route, wherein the at least one new node transmits to the old node moving information of the mobile node and the authentication request information, and requests to the old node the authentication and the re-association of the mobile node, wherein the old node simultaneously performs the authentication of the mobile node with respect to the WLAN mesh network, and the re-association of the mobile node with respect to the WLAN mesh network, and simultaneously establishes the route among the old node, one or more intermediate mesh nodes between the old node and the at least one new node, and the at least one new node, based on the moving information received from the at least one new node, wherein the old node is a node from which the mobile node has previously received data, and the at least one new node is at least one node from which the mobile node desires to receive data, and wherein the re-association is performed to establish the route based on a re-association table of the mobile node managed by the old node, the re-association table comprising information on nodes that are able to communicate with the old node.