Patent ID: 8305996

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) receiving in a first mesh access point one or more advertisements from a second mesh access point of a first wireless mesh network controlled by a mesh network controller, wherein the first mesh access point includes non-volatile memory in which an access point profile data structure is pre-stored and pre-configured with a plurality of sub-profiles usable for discovering one or more wireless mesh networks and for joining a wireless mesh network; wherein the plurality of pre-configured sub-profiles in the access point profile data structure includes at least two of items (i) to (vi): (i) one or more parameters that provide security information, including an indication of whether or not mutual authentication is required for the first mesh access point, and in the case the indication is that mutual authentication is required, credential information to use in mutual authentication; (ii) one or more initial radio parameters to use; (iii) one or more entries for describing one or more QoS capabilities and/or QoS requirements of the first mesh access point; (iv) one or more entries defining at least one mobility policy; (v) at least one of: what version or versions of simple network management protocol (SNMP) are supported, a diagnostic policy or policies, a troubleshooting policy or policies, whether remote login is supported, whether console support is enabled, whether remote power cycling is enabled, whether active probing is enabled, and whether passive probing is enabled; and (vi) one or more entries to indicate at least one of: what mesh role or roles and what access point role or roles the first mesh access point can undertake; (b) deciding in the first mesh access point whether or not to join the first wireless mesh network via the second mesh access point using information from the received one or more advertisements and the pre-configured sub-profiles; in the case that the decision is to join the first wireless mesh network via the second mesh access point, performing steps (c) to (f) by the first mesh access point: (c) setting up a physical radio link with the second mesh access point; (d) requesting association with the second mesh access point as a potential child mesh access point of the second mesh access point in the first wireless mesh network, the requesting using at least one of the one or more parameters that provide security information; (e) receiving a response to the association request; and (f) in the case that the received response is positive, using one or more policies stored in the access point profile data structure to join the first wireless mesh network via the second mesh access point; and after joining the particular mesh network, transmitting from the first mesh access point advertisements to indicate the first mesh access point's access point capabilities for servicing wireless clients.