WLAN SCANNING ACCORDING TO CHANNEL ORDER REPRESENTING DECREASING RELATIVE PREVALENCE OF ACCESS POINT DEPLOYMENT

1 . A method in a wireless local area network client device, the method comprising:

storing in the wireless local area network device a channel order that is specific to a population of access points, the order of channels in the channel order representing the decreasing relative prevalence of access point deployment in the population, such that the first channel in the channel order is a most prevalent channel on which most access points in the population are deployed, and the second channel in the channel order is a next most prevalent channel on which the next highest number of access points in the population are deployed; and

scanning for wireless local area networks according to the channel order.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the population is a general population of access points worldwide.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the population is a general population of access points in a single regulatory domain.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining that the client device is in a different regulatory domain than the single regulatory domain, and consequently scanning for wireless local area networks using a scanning scheme that takes into account the relative prevalence of access point deployment on channels in a general population of access points in the different regulatory domain.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the population is a general population of access points in a single country.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining that the client device is in a different country than the single country, and consequently scanning for wireless local area networks using a scanning scheme that takes into account the relative prevalence of access point deployment on channels in a general population of access points in the different country.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the population consists of access points that the client device has previously detected.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

modifying the scanning scheme based on statistics of channels on which the client device has previously detected wireless local area networks.

9 . A client device comprising:

a processor;

a wireless local area network interface coupled to the processor, the wireless local area network interface comprising a wireless local area network controller and a radio;

an antenna coupled to the radio; and

a memory coupled to the processor,

the memory arranged to store a channel order that is specific to a population of access points, the order of channels in the channel order representing the decreasing relative prevalence of access point deployment in the population, such that the first channel in the channel order is a most prevalent channel on which most access points in the population are deployed, and the second channel in the channel order is a next most prevalent channel on which the next highest number of access points in the population are deployed,

the memory further arranged to store executable code that, when executed by the processor, controls the wireless local area network controller to scan for wireless local area network according to the channel order.

10 . The client device of claim 9 , wherein the population is a general population of access points worldwide.

11 . The client device of claim 9 , wherein the population is a general population of access points in a single regulatory domain.

12 . The client device of claim 9 , wherein the population is a general population of access points in a single country.

13 . The client device of claim 9 , wherein the population consists of access points that the client device has previously detected.