Patent ID: 7126937

Claim:
A method for synchronizing access points in a wireless local area network to enable a seamless transfer of a mobile device in the wireless local area network, communications in the wireless local area network being based on a plurality of timing patterns, the method comprising the steps of: designating as a top level in a hierarchy of piconets and a second piconet designed as a second level in the hierarchy, and wherein an initial access point has a master role for the first piconet, a second access point has a slave role in the first piconet, the second access point has a master role for the second piconet concurrently with having the slave role in the first piconet, and a third access point has a slave role in the second piconet, wherein the second access point has a first set of timing registers controlling a slave clock phase for the slave role in the first piconet, and a second set of timing registers controlling a master clock phase for the master role in the second piconet; synchronizing the second access point having a second timing pattern of the plurality of timing patterns with the initial access point having an initial timing pattern of the plurality, the second access point adjusting the second timing pattern to match the initial timing pattern to produce a synchronized second timing pattern for use by the second access point; synchronizing the third access point having a third timing pattern of the plurality of timing patterns with the second access point, by adjusting the third timing pattern to match the synchronized second timing pattern of the second access point to produce a synchronized third timing pattern for use by the third access point; transferring a clock offset value from the first set of timing registers to the second set of timing registers to synchronize the slave role in the first piconet with the master role in the second piconet; and transferring a connection for the mobile device by transferring an initial link between the mobile device and the initial access point to a transferred link between the mobile device and the third access point to provide for the seamless transfer of the mobile device as a function of synchronization of the initial access point with the third access point based on the initial timing pattern and the synchronized third timing pattern.