Patent ID: 8607049

Claim:
A wireless bridge for wireless to TCP/IP based communication acting as a network access device (NAD), the network address device comprising: a processor with memory; a radio frequency transceiver front end communicating with the processor; an antenna coupled to the front end; and a power source providing power to the processor and front end wherein the processor with memory containing computer instructions for executing IEEE 802.15.4 standard compliant operations; transmitting a network access device announcement (NADA) message representative of the initiation of passive network discovery to multiple end devices; determining whether a designated end device is network compliant; establishing communication with the compliant designated end device; and forwarding the NADA message to the designated end device; implementing a set of air interface protocols on the wireless side that allow for network discovery and status message exchanges with end devices whose addresses are not pre-programmed into the access device in advance in a connectionless manner; supporting network discovery and status message exchange requirements for end devices randomly moving in and out of network access device coverage; implementing a set of reduced medium access control (MAC)-layer messaging protocols to minimize RF channel traffic and coexistence with commercial standard 802 systems.