Patent ID: 7773972

Claim:
An enhanced wireless device for selective operation in a group of wireless devices, the enhanced wireless device comprising: a wireless access mechanism; storage enabled to hold data and code, the data comprising state information for the enhanced wireless device, the state information comprising mutually exclusive exchanged and non-exchanged authentication states with respect to at least one other wireless device of the group, the state information further comprising a record of when an effective signal strength of the wireless access mechanism is sufficient to enable information exchange between the enhanced wireless device and the at least one other wireless device and when the effective signal strength is insufficient to enable the information exchange, the code comprising routines to implement a wireless access communications protocol stack, selectively update the state information, and support dynamic selection between at least a first association-based function and a second association-based function, the dynamic selection being at least partially based on the record; a processor enabled to selectively execute the routines, the processor coupled to the wireless access mechanism and the storage; wherein the first association-based function is selected when the exchanged authentication state becomes true and the second association-based function is selected when the non-exchanged authentication state becomes true; and wherein based at least partially on the dynamic selection between the first and second association-based functions, locally initiated access to at least one protected local resource is at least selectively restricted.