Comment 110 for bug 414560

@Kunal,
Yes, scanning is required to find a network to connect to, when you initially have no connection at all. My point is that once you're successfully associated to a network, automatic/background scanning should stop. You don't need scanning to happen any more unless the environment changes - either the AP is deactivated, or you're using a mobile computer and you move to a different location. In most cases, people using wifi are stationary for the majority of the time they're connected.

Those other bug reports I referenced already indicate that NM is lousy at choosing an appropriate background scan interval. In some cases it occurs too frequently and causes the session to ping-pong when there are multiple APs nearby of approximately equal strength. In some cases it occurs too slowly, long after the network environment has changed. Basically it's impossible for NM to know exactly when it should scan again. So, unless it actually loses the connection (in which case scanning would resume automatically anyway) it should just stop and only scan when a user manually requests a scan.