Patent ID: 7907564

Claim:
A method comprising, at a wireless device: identifying a plurality of communication channels; for each of the communication channels, identifying a signal strength associated with the communication channel; for each of the communication channels, determining whether the communication channel overlaps with one or more other ones of the communication channels; for each of the communication channels, identifying a first Service Set Identifier and a first authentication type associated with the communication channel; identifying a second Service Set Identifier and a second authentication type associated with the wireless device; classifying each of the communication channels into one of a plurality of groups, the plurality of groups comprising one or more of a first group of valid channels, a second group of potential channels, a third group of overlap channels, or a fourth group of incompatible channels, wherein, for each of the communication channels: the communication channel is classified into the fourth group if the first and second Service Set Identifiers do not match each other or the first and second authentication types do not match each other; the communication channel is classified into the first group if the signal strength associated with the communication channel exceeds a threshold, the communication channel does not overlap with another one of the communication channels, the first and second Service Set Identifiers, match each other, and the first and second authentication types match each other; the communication channel is classified into the second group if the signal strength associated with the communication channel does not exceed the threshold, the communication channel does not overlap with another one of the communication channels, the first and second Service Set Identifiers match each other, and the first and second authentication types match each other; and the communication channel is classified into the third group if the communication channel overlaps with another one of the communication channels, the first and second Service Set Identifiers match each other, and the first and second authentication types match each other; scanning the communication channels in the groups, the scanning of one or more of the groups being performed at a first frequency and the scanning of one or more other ones of the groups being performed at a second frequency that is different from the first frequency; and updating one or more of the groups based on the scanning.