Patent ID: 8036655

Claim:
A network comprising at least two wireless networks, said at least two wireless networks supporting roaming and comprising: a wireless gateway comprising a plurality of wireless gateway circuits coupled to a plurality of wireless network access points to form a plurality of wireless clusters, a first one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a first plurality of access points defining a first wireless cluster and a second one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a second and different plurality of said access points defining a second wireless cluster, the wireless gateway configured to track the location of a plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless clusters, wherein first and second tracked mobile nodes of said plurality support only one of, respectively, first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies, and said wireless gateway is further configured to track said mobile nodes from a first access point in a wireless cluster to another access point in the wireless cluster, said first tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said second networking architecture and/or topology; a network access gateway coupled to a wired network, the network access gateway comprising first and second network access gateway circuits, said first network access gateway circuit only supporting said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second network access gateway circuit only supporting said second networking architecture and/or topology, and said network access gateway configured to be an anchor point for said plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless network, to maintain a fixed source of information about each mobile node in said wireless clusters as the mobile nodes roam from a wireless cluster to another wireless cluster, and to direct incoming and outgoing traffic to and from the mobile nodes; and a switch coupled to the wireless gateway and the network access gateway, the switch configured to provide connectivity between the network access gateway and the wireless gateway.