Patent ID: 8064921

Claim:
An access point (AP) comprising: a transceiver by which the AP is capable of communicating with at least one client by way of a channel; a port by which the AP is capable of being in communication with at least one additional AP of a WLAN of which the AP forms a part; a memory device; and a processing device coupled at least indirectly to each of the transceiver, the port, and the memory device, wherein the AP receives by way of the transceiver at least one signal from the at least one client indicative of interference being experienced by the at least one client from at least one AP outside the range of the at least one client, and wherein the processing device either by itself or in cooperation with at least one other processing device of one or more of the at least one additional AP, and based upon the at least one signal, determines the channel by which the transceiver is capable of communicating by: (a) identifying both a respective range set and a respective interference set for each of a plurality of clients of the WLAN, wherein the range set for each given client describes the APs having the given client in range for communication, and the interference set for each client describes the APs that are not members of the range set but are (i) within a communication range of an AP communicating with the given client, or (ii) are within the communication range of another client that in turn is within either the range of the given client or the range of an AP communicating with the given client; (b) assigning channels to APs to reduce interference from APs in the client's range set and interference set for the client's channel by selecting an assignment of channels to APs to increase the number of clients having, for each given client, one AP with a given channel in the range set of the given client where that given channel is not in the interference set of the given client.