Patent ID: 8074070

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an access point configured to wirelessly communicate with mobile clients and configured to communicate with a plurality of other access points over a network; wherein a first mobile client roams from a second access point; wherein the access point determines whether the second access point has sent authentication context information for the first mobile client; wherein the access point authenticates the first mobile client with an authentication server using an authentication protocol; wherein the access point is configured to send a multicast deregistration notice for the first mobile client onto the network responsive to successfully authenticating the first mobile client; wherein the access point is configured to mutually authenticate with the second access point that is in communication with the access point via the network in response to the first mobile client roaming from the second access point; wherein the access point establishes a secure communication channel with the second access point via the network upon successfully authenticating with the second access point; wherein the access point is configured to receive authentication context information for a second mobile client from the second access point via the secure communication channel, the authentication context information comprises a session key and a session identifier; wherein the second mobile client roams from the second access point to the access point after the access point receives the context information for the second mobile client via the secure communication channel; and wherein the access point is responsive to receiving an association request from the second mobile client to authenticate the second mobile client using a re-authentication protocol with the authentication context information received from the second access point.