Patent ID: 7430181

Claim:
A method in a first wireless station of a wireless network, the method comprising: wirelessly transmitting a discovery message; waiting for a settable time interval to wirelessly receive a configuration request message from a second wireless station within the settable time interval the configuration request message being wirelessly transmitted by the second wireless station in response to the discovery message being wirelessly received by the second wireless station; and in the case the configuration request message is received within the settable time interval, generating a configuration data message for the second wireless station including one or more configuration parameters for the second wireless station, and wirelessly transmitting the configuration data message to the second wireless station, such that the second wireless station can be configured, wherein the transmitting of the configuration message is after waiting for a backoff time interval, and wherein the wirelessly transmitting the discovery message includes: wirelessly transmitting the discovery message at a first output RF power level; waiting for a configuration request message; in the case that no configuration request message is wirelessly received within a period of time, wirelessly re-transmitting the discovery message at a higher output RF power level; and repeating such waiting and re-transmitting until either a maximum output RF power level has been reached, or a configuration request message has been wirelessly received, such that the range of reception of the wirelessly transmitted configuration data message is limited.