Patent ID: 7652995

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a wired network interface; a wireless network interface which transmits a series of beacons according to a first interval, wherein each beacon identifies access capability through said wired network interface, and which associates clients through the wireless network interface for access through said wired network interface, the wireless network interface having a register for storing a variable which affects the operation of the wireless network interface; and a flow controller which is coupled to said wired network interface and said wireless network interface and which detects a degraded condition on said wired network interface that indicates a degradation on a wired network to which the wired network interface is connected and initiates the broadcast of a reassociation request across said wireless network interface in response to the detection on said wired network interface; wherein said flow controller stores only a single bit sized first value in the register in response to the degradation detected on said wired network interface and wherein said wireless network interface increases the interval between the beacon transmissions according to a second interval which is longer than the first interval in response to the first value being stored in the register; and wherein the degraded condition is selected from the group consisting of a reduced network throughput condition and a network outage condition.