Patent ID: 7499964

Claim:
A first access point for a wireless LAN communication network, wherein the first access point is adapted to: (a) send probe requests and probe responses to other access points, (b) receive probe requests and probe responses from other access points (c) calculate an interference parameter for each of a plurality of its possible channels (d) calculate a channel sharing parameter for each of said plurality of channels (e) calculate a regular channel quality parameter (regCSIQ) for each of said plurality of channels, indicative of the amount of interference and channel sharing on each of said plurality of channels, using said interference and channel sharing parameters (f) dynamically select a new channel from said plurality of possible channels using said regular channel quality parameters (regCSIQ), wherein said first access point is arranged to select said new channel by mutually swapping channels with a second access point using a swapping mechanism in which: the new channel for the first access point is the previous channel for the second access point; the new channel for the second access point is the previous channel for the first access point; and said first access point is a swap requesting access point (AP 1 ), operating on a first channel (C 1 ), that calculates and stores a swap specific channel quality parameter (ssCSIQ) for every responding access point (AP 2 ) operating on a second channel (C 2 ), said swap specific channel quality parameter (ssCSIQ) being calculated under the assumption that every responding access point (AP 2 ) and said swap requesting access point (AP 1 ) have already swapped channels, which swap specific channel quality parameter is used in said swapping mechanism, wherein said first access point is adapted to: (a) calculate a benefit-in-performance parameter (SwapBinP) having a value equal to a difference between a lowest of all regular channel quality parameters and a lowest of all swap specific channel quality parameters (b) send a swap request containing said benefit-in-performance parameter (SwapBinP) to the second access point that corresponds to said lowest of all swap specific channel quality parameters of all said responding access points (AP 2 ); (c) wait for a swap response from said second access point (AP 2 ); (d) switch to the new channel based on said swap response.