Patent ID: 7359358
Filing Date: 2008-04-15
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of identifying route information for a route in a wireless network between a base station and a destination wireless device, the route information comprising a sequence of wireless devices from the destination wireless device to the base station, the method comprising: (i) from the base station, sending an advertisement signal into the wireless network; (ii) in response to receipt at the destination wireless device of the advertisement signal, generating an acknowledgement signal at the destination wireless device, the acknowledgement signal including an identifier representative of the destination wireless device; (iii) transmitting the acknowledgement signal sequentially via each of the wireless devices of the sequence to the base station; (iv) at each of the wireless devices of the sequence, modifying the acknowledgement signal received from the preceding wireless device by adding to the acknowledgement signal an identifier representative of the identity of the respective wireless device, and transmitting the modified signal, so that as the signal progresses along the sequence of wireless devices from the destination wireless device to the base station it acquires a sequence of identifiers representative of the identifiers of the wireless devices of the sequence and so that the acknowledgement signal necessarily grows in size as the acknowledgement signal progresses along the sequence of wireless devices from the destination wireless device to the base station via acquisition of the sequence of identifiers, the sequence of identifiers representing the route information between the base station and the destination wireless device; and (v) at the base station, receiving the modified acknowledgement signal transmitted from the last wireless device of the sequence, and storing the route information so obtained for later use in routing a signal from the base station to the destination wireless device utilizing the stored route information.