Discovery of a network topology from a client perspective

Abstract

An access point that determines communication boundaries is described. During operation, the access point may receive one or more probe requests associated with the one or more electronic devices, where a given probe request may include an identifier of a given electronic device. Moreover, when the access point receives the given probe request, the access point may determine a signal strength associated with the given probe request and timestamps when the given probe request was received. Then, the access point may exchange probe-request information with one or more additional access points, where the probe-request information corresponds to received probe requests. Next, the access point may compare the probe-request information to determine the communication boundaries. For example, the communication boundaries may be determined by comparing the probe-request information for pairs of access points. Furthermore, the access point may identify neighboring access points based at least in part on the probe-request information.