Patent ID: 7805140

Claim:
A wireless client, comprising: a wireless network interface for communicating with one or more access elements; a processor; a memory; a wireless network interface driver application, stored in the memory, comprising instructions operable to cause the processor and the wireless network interface to: receive, from a first access element, a roaming list identifying at least one candidate access element of one or more candidate access elements other than the first access element, the roaming list is appended to an association response transmitted from the first access element to the wireless client in response to an association request transmitted from the wireless client; monitor, during an associated state with the first access element, one or more radio frequency signals transmitted by the first access element relative to a signal attribute; and when the wireless client determines that the monitored signal attribute crosses below a threshold value, then alternate between a pre-emptive scanning mode to actively scan for one or more candidate access elements identified in the roaming list with which to associate by sending directed probes to the one or more candidate access elements identified in the roaming list, and a traffic mode to communicate with the first access element to transmit or receive wireless frames; and when a second access element of the one or more candidate access elements having a value of the monitored signal attribute greater than the value of the monitored signal attribute of the first access element by at least a predetermined margin is identified during a scan for candidate access elements while in the pre-emptive scanning mode: select the second access element; and associate with the selected second access element; the instructions are operable to cause the processor and the wireless network interface to alternate between the pre-emptive scanning mode and the traffic mode at least a plurality of times before selecting the second access element identified during the pre-emptive scanning mode.