Patent ID: 7969914
Filing Date: 2011-06-28
Classification: H04L,H04W,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for establishing an ad-hoc network comprising a plurality of nodes, where one of the nodes is pre-designated as a root node that constitutes a relay node and said root node periodically broadcasts a heartbeat message which includes an indirection number that indicates the root node being at a first level, said method comprising each non-root node n j of the plurality of nodes, wherein n represents a non-root node, and j represent an integer value greater than 1, repetitively executing the steps of: listening for heartbeat messages, to identify relay nodes of said network that are in neighborhood of said node n when node n selecting a relay node corresponding to one of the heard heartbeat messages as an uplink relay node of said node n assigning to itself an indirection number that is one greater than the indirection number found in the heartbeat message of the selected uplink relay node; when node n conditioning itself for repetitive broadcasting of a heartbeat message that includes the node's own indirection number, thereby becoming a relay node; when node n when node n conditioning itself to stop broadcasting said heartbeat messages, thereby ceasing to be a relay node.