Patent ID: 7359989

Claim:
A method of transferring messages required for acquiring a temporary MAC address in a wireless local area network, the method comprising: determining a temporary MAC address in a first device to identify the first device; transmitting a message from the first device to a second device to check uniqueness of said temporary MAC address, the message comprising said temporary MAC address to be suggested as a MAC layer source address; in response to the message received from the first device, checking uniqueness of said temporary MAC address by the second device; in response to the temporary MAC address not being unique in the wireless local area network, the second device rejects the temporary MAC address determined by the first device; in response to the temporary MAC address being unique in the wireless local area network, transmitting a response message relating to acquisition of the MAC address from the second device to the first device, the message comprising said temporary MAC address; identifying in the first device on the basis of the temporary MAC address that the response message is intended for the first device; and using said temporary MAC address as the MAC layer source address to identify messages transmitted from the first device and as a MAC layer address to receive messages having the temporary MAC address as a destination address for messages addressed to the first device in a wireless local area network.