SHORT RANGE RF NETWORK WITH ROAMING TERMINALS, AND METHOD THEREFOR

摘要

A short-range RF network includes a plurality of short-range RF transceivers deployed with overlapping coverage areas and accessible through a gateway, and accommodates terminal devices to establish communication through any transceivers with the gateway or with other of the terminal devices. The system further includes a WAP/Web server in communication with the Internet and in communication with the gateway. Terminal devices may establish Internet sessions through a node, the gateway, the WAP/Web server, and the Internet with remote Web servers and are asssigned PPP IP numbers for such sessions. A terminal device which roams from the coverage area of one node to the coverage area of another node, and which is accordingly assigned a new PPP IP number, may continue in an Internet session by virtue of a shared database associated with the WAP/Web server and updated by the gateway. The shared database enables correlation of the terminal device's current location in the network with the PPP IP number by which Internet communications refer to it.