Patent ID: 8098662

Claim:
A method of operating an access point to communicate information to an access terminal, the method comprising: receiving at the access point a first packet from a remote device, said first packet including a first long address and information to be communicated; determining a first short address corresponding to said first long address to be used for communications over a communications link, said first short address including fewer bits than said first long address; transmitting said information to be communicated with the first short address to said access terminal; receiving at the access point a second packet from the access terminal, said packet including a second short address and information to be communicated to the remote device; determining a second long address based on said second short address to be used for communicating said information to said remote device, said second long address including more bits than said second short address; sending said information to be communicated with the second long address to said remote device; wherein said second short address and said second long address independently identify the remote device; and wherein said second short address includes a portion of said second long address and is different from a MAC address and an Ipv4 address.