Patent ID: 7394796

Claim:
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) infrastructure that services a plurality of wireless terminals, the WLAN infrastructure comprising: a wired backbone network; an air controller communicatively coupled to the wired backbone network; a plurality of Wireless Access Points (WAPs) communicatively coupled to the wired backbone network, wherein each of the plurality of WAPs comprises: a processor; a wired backbone interface communicatively coupled to the processor; a first radio communicatively coupled to the wired backbone interface and to the processor that supports communications with the plurality of wireless terminals; a directional antenna coupled to the first radio having an antenna gain pattern that is controlled by the processor; a second radio communicatively coupled to the wired backbone interface and to the processor that listens to, but does not participate in transmissions of at least some of the plurality of wireless terminals, gathers non-participatory WAP data, and provides the non-participatory WAP data to the processor; an antenna coupled to the second radio; wherein, the processor receives the non-participatory WAP data from the second radio, creates WAP operational reports based there upon, and provides the WAP operational reports to the air controller; and wherein, based upon directions received from the air controller, the processor alters the gain pattern of the directional antenna.