Patent ID: 7869407

Claim:
A network comprising: at least two intelligent base stations, each intelligent base station having a unique ESSID and a unique MAC address; at least one mobile device adapted to communicate with said intelligent base stations, each mobile device having a unique MAC address; and means for controlling the communications between said intelligent base stations and said mobile devices, wherein said means for controlling communications between said intelligent base stations and said mobile devices comprises: means for transmitting routing information including a MAC address from said mobile device to said intelligent base station, and means for transmitting routing information from any one of said at least one intelligent base station to each other said at least one intelligent base station on the network, wherein said means for controlling communications between said intelligent base stations and said mobile devices includes software for performing the following steps: determining the signal strength of a signal from each intelligent base station in the network at a mobile device and identifying the intelligent base station having the strongest signal at the mobile device; determining the saturation of the signal of each intelligent base station in communication with said mobile device; determining the preferred connection between said mobile device and one of said intelligent base stations based on the signal strength of the signal from the intelligent base station and the saturation of the intelligent base station; updating the address resolution protocol cache and broadcasting the routing information to each intelligent base station in the network; scanning available signals from intelligent base stations within the network to determine whether the signal strength and saturation of the signals from a different intelligent base station have changed to make the second intelligent base station the preferred connection; connecting to the second intelligent base station; and updating the address resolution protocol cache and IP broadcasting the routing information to each intelligent base station on the network.