Patent ID: 7697482

Claim:
A method of distributing loads among a plurality of access points providing wireless access from a plurality of terminals to a network wherein each terminal selectively associates with an access point with which the terminal is in a position to communicate, the plurality of access points include a first access point, a second access point, and a third access point; the wireless communication range of the first access point and the wireless communication range of the second access point partially overlap each other; and the wireless communication range of the second access point and the wireless communication range of the third access point partially overlap each other; the method comprising: maintaining, at each of the first access point, the second access point and the third access point, information about positions and associations of the terminals according to signals received from the terminals at the first, second and third access points; calculating, at the first access point, a load on the first access point; selecting, at the first access point, from among the terminals, when the calculated load satisfies a predetermined condition, a first terminal associated with and communicating with the first access point; finding, among the access points, the second access point with which the first terminal is in position to communicate; transmitting a first request from the first access point to the second access point, requesting a hand-over of a second terminal which is different from the first terminal, which is associated with the second access point, and which is in a position to communicate with the first access point, to the third access point; finding, at the second access point, responsive to the first request, the second terminal; finding the third access point with which the second terminal is in a position to communicate; transmitting a first command from the second access point to the third access point, commanding the third access point to accept a hand-over of the second terminal from the second access point; effecting, at the third access point, responsive to the first command, a hand-over of the second terminal; associating the second terminal with the third access point; transmitting a message from the third access point to the second access point, notifying that the hand-over of the second terminal has been completed; receiving, at the second access point, the message from the third access point, that the hand-over of the second terminal has been completed; and de-associating the second terminal from the second access point.