Patent ID: 8027248

Claim:
A method of minimizing wireless network downtime associated with a wireless switch failure comprising: adopting an access port to a N number of wireless switches, wherein said access port is actually adopted by a first switch of said N number of wireless switches, said first switch configured to send control and data traffic to said access port, wherein said access port is virtually adopted by N−1 wireless switches, said N−1 wireless switches configured to send control traffic to said access port, N being an integer value greater than 1; selecting a second switch from said N−1 switches to actually adopt said access port upon a link failure between said access port and said first wireless switch, whereupon if the first and second switches share a wireless protocol security mechanism, said second switch configured to send control and data traffic to said access port, and otherwise the second switch sending de-authentication packets to mobile devices identified in a memory of said second switch; exchanging control and data traffic between said access port and said second wireless switch; and updating a status of said mobile devices associated with said access port using a message exchange between all of said N wireless switches.