Patent ID: 7852819

Claim:
A method of operating a network traffic device for communication using a network communication protocol over a managed network, the method comprising: receiving an uplink identifier (ID) that identifies a wireless network for uplink communication using the network communication protocol; performing a scan of wireless networks and producing identical first and second lists of access points identified by the scan and wireless networks with which the identified access points are associated; deleting access points from the first list that are not suitable for use as an uplink for the managed network; deleting access points from the second list that are not members of the managed network; associating with an identified access point that remains in the first list and operating as a gateway to neighboring access points for the uplink wireless network of the uplink ID; joining an existing wireless network identified in the second list by the performed scan if no identified access point remains in the first list, and otherwise operate as a gateway and permit client devices to associate for a predetermined time and then repeat performing the scan of wireless networks; wherein associating with an identified access point that remains in the first list comprises: selecting the access point in the first list with the greatest received signal strength indication (RSSI) value; sending a DHCP request message to the selected access point and associating with the selected access point with operation as a gateway; broadcasting availability to neighbor client devices as a gateway to the wireless network with the received uplink ID if associating with the selected access point was successful.