Methods and arrangements to offload scans of a large scan list

Abstract

Embodiments describe arrangements related to offload scanning of large scan lists. Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code to facilitate offloading of the scans of large scan lists, e.g., lists on the order of thousands of networks or access points for networks, to network adapters such as wireless network interface cards. Many embodiments provide a network adapter with a compressed representation of a large scan list that may not fit uncompressed in memory of the network adapter. In some embodiments, the compressed representation of the scan list may be lossy, introducing balances related to the memory size on the network adapter, the extent of compression, and the list size, as well as a balance between the memory size and a probability of false positives. In many embodiments, the network adapter may wake the host device upon identifying a network on a scan list.