Patent ID: 8510442

Claim:
A method for channel allocation for a WLAN, wherein the WLAN comprises a plurality of access points that are grouped into a plurality of access point group with at least one access point group having more than one access point, the method comprising: assigning a common dedicated paging channel to all access points in a same access point group, with each access point groups assigned a different common dedicated paging channel than the other access point groups in the WLAN, wherein the paging channel enables paging of a computing device that is capable of entering and exiting a dormant mode; and associating a new access point group with the computing device when the computing device crosses a boundary between paging areas of the new access point group and a previous access point group, wherein the computing device searches for a new paging channel only when the computing device crosses the boundary between the paging areas of the new access point group and the previous access point group; wherein each of the at least one access point groups has a root access point to perform assignment of the common dedicated paging channel in each access point group.