AUTONOMIC CLIENT REASSOCIATION IN A WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK

摘要

A wireless network client is described which obtains access to the resources of a backbone network provided by a wireless access point. The client is adapted to receive a reassociation request from an access point which is able to detect a degraded condition on the backbone network and inform clients of the degraded condition. Upon detecting the degraded condition, the access point transmits or broadcasts a reassociation request to one or more clients associated with the access point. Information can also be sent identifying the degraded performance of the backbone network and can include other information useful to clients. Once a client has received the reassociation request and/or the informed identifying the degraded performance, the clients seek access to the backbone network through other access points which are not experiencing degraded performance. The seek preferably omits the access point identified as experiencing degraded backbone performance.