Patent ID: 8391240

Claim:
A method, comprising: associating with a current wireless switch at a wireless client device when the wireless client device roams from a first subnet associated with a first wireless switch to a second subnet associated with the current wireless switch; determining at the current wireless switch whether association with the wireless client device was successful; generating a first IGMP query message (IGMPQM) destined for the wireless client device at the current wireless switch when the wireless client device successfully associates with the current network infrastructure device, wherein a MAC destination address of the first IGMPQM is a MAC address of the wireless client device; sending the first IGMPQM from the current wireless switch to one or more access ports associated with the current wireless switch; transmitting the first IGMPQM from the one of more access ports over a wireless communication channel to the wireless communication device; determining, at the wireless client device, whether the wireless client device has a valid IP address for the second subnet; ignoring the first IGMPQM at the wireless client device when the wireless client device determines that it does not have a valid IP address for the second subnet; obtaining, at the wireless client device, a new IP address from a DHCP server; generating a second IGMP query message (IGMPQM) destined for the wireless client device at the current wireless switch when the current wireless switch receives a DHCP acknowledgment (ACK) for the wireless communication device from a DHCP server and forwards the DHCP ACK to the wireless client device, wherein a MAC destination address of the second IGMPQM is a MAC address of the wireless client device; and sending the second IGMPQM from the current wireless switch to one or more access ports associated with the current wireless switch; transmitting the second IGMPQM from the one of more access ports over a wireless communication channel to the wireless communication device; and receiving the second IGMPQM at the wireless client device.