Patent ID: 7738424

Claim:
A network comprising at least two wireless networks, said at least two wireless networks supporting roaming and comprising: a wireless gateway comprising plurality of wireless gateway circuits coupled to a plurality of wireless network access points to form a plurality of wireless clusters, a first one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a first plurality of access points defining a first wireless cluster and a second one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a second and different plurality of said access points defining a second wireless cluster, the wireless gateway configured to track the location of a plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless clusters, wherein first and second tracked mobile nodes of said plurality support only one of respectively, first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies, and said wireless gateway is further configured to track said mobile nodes from a first access point in a wireless cluster to another access point in the wireless cluster, said first tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said second networking architecture and/or topology, and said wireless gateway is further configured to detect the presence of mobile nodes in the wireless cluster, and to direct message traffic; a network access gateway coupled to a wired network, the network access gateway comprising first and second network access gateway circuits, said first network access gateway circuit only supporting said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second network access gateway circuit only supporting said second networking architecture and/or topology, and said network access gateway configured to be an anchor point for said plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless network, to maintain a fixed source of information about each mobile node in said wireless clusters and with which wireless cluster the mobile node is communicating as the nodes roam from the plurality of access points in a wireless cluster to a plurality of access points in another wireless cluster, and to direct incoming and outgoing traffic to and from the mobile node; and a switch coupled to the wireless gateway and the network access gateway, the switch configured to provide connectivity between the network access gateway and the wireless gateway.