Patent ID: 7839856
Filing Date: 2010-11-23
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a processing system including one or more processing elements to a wireless mesh network to control the wireless mesh network, including controlling at least part of packet routing in the mesh network, the method comprising: at least one processing element of the processing system receiving from each mesh point of the wireless mesh network information sufficient to determine a map of mesh points and one or more available wireless links between the mesh points, the mesh points of the wireless mesh network including a root mesh point and one or more additional mesh points; in response to detecting that a client of a particular mesh point that has access point capabilities is joining the mesh network, using a centralized routing process to determine at least one path from the client to the root mesh point for at least one traffic class; at least one processing element of the processing system assigning an upstream tag to one or more determined paths for each traffic class from the client, such that each assigned upstream tag has at least one corresponding upstream path; and for each upstream tag, at least one processing element of the processing system sending to at least each mesh point in the upstream tag's one or more paths tag information on the upstream tag, such that a receiving mesh point can store forwarding information for the upstream tag, including the upstream tag of the path, and one or more immediate next hops of the receiving mesh point for the corresponding path or paths of the upstream tag, wherein a packet that has been tagged to include a tag is forwardable by a receiving mesh point that stores forwarding information by the receiving mesh point looking up the tag in its stored forwarding information to determine the next hop for the tagged packet, and the receiving mesh point forwarding the tagged packet to the next hop.