Extended Service Set Transitions in Wireless Networks

Abstract

A mobile device may transition between Extended Service Set (“ESS”) networks seamlessly, such that a consumer never loses the network connection despite the transition. The communication for enabling a transition may be prior to association with that network. The seamless transition may be enabled through the creation and utilization of a central key holder authority that advertises its identity to mobile devices in a pre-associated state. The mobile device can use the key discovery communication along with a key generation method to authenticate and/or associate with a network and transition from one ESS to another. There may be a common root key across ESSs. At each new access point (“AP”) that the mobile device encounters, ESS and key holder identities may be discovered through discovery communications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.