Patent ID: 7787401

Claim:
A method comprising: for a particular network identifier of at least one network identifier active in a first wireless device that supports more than one network identifier, the first wireless device including an arrangement for modulating and transmitting, the arrangement including a transmitter and modulator, and medium access control (MAC) hardware coupled to the transmitter and modulator, each network identifier identifying an infrastructure wireless network for which the first wireless device acts as an access point: transmitting from the first wireless device full parent beacon frames periodically at the beacon frame rate for the particular network identifier and transmitting from the first wireless device at least one mini-beacon frame in between consecutive full parent beacon frames for the particular network identifier, the transmitting of the at least one mini-beacon frame being in the same channel in which full parent beacon frames are transmitted, each mini beacon frame being shorter than a full parent beacon frame and including a subset of the information in a full parent beacon frame, and further including timing information indicative of when the next full parent beacon frame will be transmitted for the particular network identifier, wherein transmitting the subset is more frequent than the transmitting of a full beacon frame, and wherein at least one of: the information in a mini-beacon is selected such that an unassociated wireless station receiving the mini-beacon is discouraged from attempting to associate with the access point of the particular network identifier, and the information in a mini-beacon is selected to provide timing information such that a station receiving the mini-beacon frames can maintain synchronization, such that a second wireless device for which the first wireless device acts as an access point can determine when the next full parent beacon frame is to be transmitted.