SYSTEM, APPARATUS, AND METHOD TO INDICATE PREFERRED ACCESS POINTS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lessen the time it takes for an STA to find the best AP or SP to connect to for roaming and to improve the efficiency of the communication protocol.SOLUTION: There is provided a system related to a "Priority" field that is included in the information transmitted by an AP 801about its neighbor APs 801and the SPs that it supports. The "Priority" field is included in at least one of a Neighbor Report element, an AP Channel Report element, and an SP information element. The SP priority field is contained in any protocol frame transmitted by the AP 801that contains information about one or more SPs that the AP supports. The "Priority" field contains a numeric value indicating a recommendation from the AP 801concerning which AP and SP(s) for an STA 802j to scan first or access in an eventual roaming/accessing process.