Patent ID: 8400990

Claim:
A network access point that allows a device to associate with a BSS hosted by a WLAN switch controller situated on an internet, comprising: a network interface for receiving an 802.11 probe request for said BSS from said device, said 802.11 probe request including a Service Set Identifier that identifies said BSS; and an 802.11 probe request processing component responsive to said 802.11 probe request to produce an 802.11 probe response, and comprising: an SSID resolver component responding to said Service Set Identifier in said 802.11 probe request including resolving said Service Set Identifier to produce a routable IP address of said WLAN switch controller, wherein said Service Set Identifier has the form identifier@fully-qualified-domain-name, where “identifier” is an identifier and “fully-qualified-domain-name” is a fully qualified domain name; a forwarding component responding to said 802.11 probe request and configured to include forwarding said 802.11 probe request to said WLAN switch controller using said routable IP address; and a responding component that receives a response from said WLAN switch controller and generates and sends said 802.11 probe response, said 802.11 probe response including information in said response from said WLAN switch controller.