Patent ID: 8792414

Claim:
An access point for enhanced coverage of a wireless local area network, the access point comprising: an antenna apparatus that provides a plurality of directional antenna patterns for communication over the wireless local area network; and a processor that executes software stored in memory, wherein execution of the software by the processor: determines a first of the plurality of directional antenna patterns, effectuates transmission of a first broadcast communication over the wireless local area network on the first of the plurality of directional antenna patterns in accordance with a communications protocol, the communications protocol having a periodic broadcast interval used to enable association of a station with the access point, determines a second of the plurality of directional antenna patterns, and effectuates transmission of a second broadcast communication over the wireless local area network on the second of the plurality of directional antenna patterns in accordance with the communications protocol, and the transmission of the second broadcast communication is offset from the transmission of the first broadcast communication by a time interval less than the periodic broadcast interval.