Patent ID: 8724583

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a neighbor discovery message sent by a first wireless mobile client device capable of roaming between wireless access point devices that are configured to serve wireless mobile client devices that are part of different virtual local area networks, the neighbor discovery message specifying a target address for a neighbor discovery function; and in response to receiving the neighbor discovery message, sending to the first wireless mobile client device a response neighbor advertisement message addressed to the first wireless mobile client device, wherein the neighbor advertisement message is configured to appear to the first wireless mobile client device as if it was sent by a second wireless mobile client device that has an address corresponding to the target address specified in the neighbor discovery message, and the neighbor advertisement message is configured to specify a layer-2 address of the second wireless mobile client device as a source address of the neighbor advertisement message; and storing multicast neighbor advertisement messages received from wireless mobile client devices over time; and converting a stored multicast neighbor advertisement message to a unicast neighbor advertisement message addressed to the first wireless mobile client device to send to the first wireless mobile client device when it is determined that there is a stored multicast neighbor advertisement message received from the second wireless mobile client device.