Patent ID: 7742442

Claim:
A method for changing a device type of an Access Point (AP) comprising: creating an all-IAP multicast group comprising a plurality of member Infrastructure Access Points (IAPs) including the Access Point; multicasting, from at least one multicast heartbeat message (MCHBM) source via a wide area network (WAN), a multicast heartbeat message to the member IAPs of the all-IAP multicast group on a regular basis; operating the Access Point as an Infrastructure Access Point (IAP) when receiving multicast heartbeat messages (MCHBM) on a WAN port of the Access Point; determining, at the Access Point, whether the WAN port is connected to the WAN network based on whether the Access Point received at least one multicast heartbeat message on the WAN port; and operating the Access Point as a Backhaul Mesh Access Point (BMAP) including establishing a route to an IAP for re-establishing connectivity to the WAN network, when it is determined that the WAN port is not connected to the WAN network.