Method to enable simultaneous connections to multiple wireless networks using a single radio

摘要

A system and method that allows a user to concurrently connect to multiple wireless networks with a single network interface card is presented. The networks may be infrastructure ("IS") networks and ad hoc ("AH") networks. A driver is inserted into a device's networking stack and exposes a plurality of virtual wireless network adapters, one for each network. The adapters are enabled and disabled in accordance with which network is presently activated. Packets for a network are queued when the network is not enabled. The wireless driver controls the switching of the network card. In one embodiment where multiple wireless cards are switching in and out of AH networks, the method converges the switching times for the cards in an AH network to ensure concurrent connectivity in the AH network for at least a brief time period every switching cycle of the wireless cards.