Patent ID: 8654741

Claim:
A method in an IEEE 802.11 communication system for selecting an access point to roam to from a plurality of access points that include a first type of preferred access points and a second type of non-preferred access points, the method comprising: scanning for access points within communication range of a wireless communication device and recording link quality metrics for each access point that is detected during scanning in an overall candidate list, and when scanning is complete; determining if a particular link quality metric of a particular access point in the overall candidate list that has the highest link quality metric is greater than a high link quality metric threshold; whereupon creating a preferred candidate list that comprises only preferred access points when the particular link quality metric is determined to be greater than the high link quality metric threshold; determining whether a current serving access point of the wireless communication device is a preferred access point; and initiating, at the wireless communication device when the current serving access point for the wireless communication device is not a preferred access point, a roam to the particular preferred access point that has the largest link quality metric, and if the particular link quality metric is determined to be less than or equal to the high link quality metric threshold, determining whether a selection preference mode is in an on-state or an off-state; whereupon determining, when the selection preference mode is determined to be in the on-state, whether the link quality metric of the preferred access point in the preferred candidate list that has the largest link quality metric is less than a low link quality metric threshold; setting a selection preference mode to indicate that access point selection preference is in an off-state when the link quality metric of the preferred access point in the preferred candidate list that has the largest link quality metric is less than a low link quality metric threshold; creating the preferred candidate list that comprises only preferred access points when the link quality metric of the preferred access point in the preferred candidate list that has the largest link quality metric is less than a low link quality metric threshold; and executing, at the wireless communication device, a roaming decision algorithm based on the preferred candidate list.