METHOD OF, AND ARRANGEMENT FOR, ENHANCING ROAMING PERFORMANCE OF A MOBILE CLIENT THAT IS ROAMING BETWEEN ACCESS POINTS CONNECTED TO A DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

摘要

Roaming performance of a mobile client exchanging data with a current access point (AP) is enhanced by discovering candidate APs available for roaming, combining information from the candidate APs to construct an aggregated fast transition (FT) request frame, and sending the aggregated FT request frame to an aggregated FT handler, which sends individual FT request messages to each candidate AP, receives individual FT response messages from each candidate AP, combines the individual FT response messages to construct an aggregated FT response frame, and sends the aggregated FT response frame to the client. The client selects a target AP from the candidate APs, constructs a reassociation request frame based on the aggregated FT response frame, sends the reassociation request frame to the target AP, receives a reassociation response frame constructed by the target AP based on the aggregated FT request and response frames, and exchanges data with the target AP.

主权项

1. A method of enhancing roaming performance of a mobile client wanting to roam away from a current access point (AP) with which the client is currently exchanging data, over a distribution system (DS) having a plurality of other APs interconnected with the current AP, the method comprising:
the client discovering candidate APs that are available for roaming from among the other APs; the client combining information from the candidate APs to construct an aggregated fast transition (FT) request frame, and sending the aggregated FT request frame to an aggregated FT handler over a wireless connection; the aggregated FT handler sending individual FT request messages based on the aggregated FT request frame to each candidate AP over the DS, and receiving individual FT response messages from each candidate AP over the DS; the aggregated FT handler combining the individual FT response messages to construct an aggregated FT response frame, and sending the aggregated FT response frame to the client over the wireless connection; the client selecting a target AP from the candidate APs; and the client constructing a reassociation request frame based on the aggregated FT response frame, sending the reassociation request frame to the target AP, receiving a reassociation response frame constructed by the target AP based on both the aggregated FT request frame and the aggregated FT response frame, and exchanging data with the target AP.