Patent ID: 8750241

Claim:
A station comprising: a media access controller (MAC); and a concurrent association manager coupled to the MAC, the concurrent association manager comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to concurrently associate the station with a first set of plural coordinators, with each coordinator in the first set forming its respective wireless network, wherein the instructions of the concurrent association manager when executed by the processor are operable to: set the station in a sleep mode operation with respect to each wireless network, coordinate synchronized sleep modes between the terminal and each of the first set of plural coordinators so that wake times of the station with respect to each of the coordinators do not completely overlap and each of the coordinators is operable to transmit a connection request to the station based on the wake times, during the sleep mode operation, detect that the station has been selected, as indicated by a connection request, connection indication or user input, for an active operation with respect to one of the coordinators in the first set, upon detection that the station has been selected for the active operation, dissociate the station with all other coordinators in the first set and relinquish the sleep mode operation with respect to the one of the coordinators in the first set to thereby perform the active operation, and upon completion of the active operation, re-associate the station with a second set of plural coordinators and operate the station in the sleep mode operation with respect to wireless network formed by the second set of plural coordinators, wherein the first set of plural coordinators are available to the station before the active operation and the second set of plural coordinators are available to the station after the active operation at the time of re-association.