Patent ID: 9237024
Filing Date: 2016-01-12
CPC Classification: H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A node device for use with a wireless multihop network containing a plurality of other node devices, each node device being within communication range, through a wireless communications medium, of one or more neighboring node devices located in a corresponding local neighborhood, the node device comprising: communication circuitry, and a controller interfaced with the communication circuitry, the controller including a processor and a non-transitory data storage medium containing instructions executable on the processor, that, when executed, cause the controller to implement a neighborhood management module that includes: a visibility message generation module that generates visibility messages to be transmitted via connection-less broadcast, the visibility messages including at least an identifier of the node device; a received visibility message assessment module that processes visibility messages received by the node device from the one or more neighboring node devices to determine a measure of density of the local neighborhood; and a management module that initiates updating of an operational parameter of the node device relating to utilization of the wireless communications medium by the communication circuitry, wherein a degree of utilization of the wireless communications medium by the node device is adjusted, at least in part, according to an inverse relation to the measure of density of the local neighborhood determined based on the received visibility messages; and a neighbor tables data store that is configured to store, in a non-transitory data storage medium, at least one data structure that identifies, in a first portion, neighboring node devices with which connections are established, and that identifies, in a second portion, neighboring node devices with which connections are not established but from which visibility messages are received, wherein a neighbor selection criterion is applied by a neighbor tables update module associated with the neighbor tables data store to initiate an update of the at least one data structure.