Patent ID: 7349702

Claim:
An indoor location awareness method comprising: performing access point (AP) communications in an infrastructure each time a new access point is added, an access point is deleted, or the access point is updated within the infrastructure, wherein each AP includes self describing information about its coverage and information about neighboring APs within each AP's range; enabling a client device to receive coverage descriptors from all observable APs within an RF (radio frequency) scanning range of the client device; and enabling the client device to use the coverage descriptors to reconstruct an image of the AP coverage as the client device traverses the infrastructure, wherein performing access point communications comprises: establishing coverage descriptors for each AP; enabling each of the APs to acquire the coverage descriptor for each of the neighboring APs, wherein a neighbor coverage descriptor includes coverage descriptors for each of the neighbor APs' neighbors; and building a database for each of the APs that includes the coverage descriptor for each of the APs and a nested list of neighbor coverage descriptors, the nested list of neighbor descriptors representing a descriptor chain for each AP, wherein the descriptor chain includes observable and unobservable AP coverage descriptors.