Patent ID: 8804584
Filing Date: 2014-08-12
Classification: H04W,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A wireless mesh network node comprising a communications module operable to: awaken at a predetermined time during a sleep/wake cycle; receive a first beacon from a first mesh network node, wherein first beacon comprises a beacon identifier operable to prevent unintentional retransmission of the same beacon such that a node that has received and retransmitted the beacon will not retransmit the beacon upon receiving the same beacon a second time, the received first beacon comprising received beacon link quality information associated with transfers from the receiving mesh network node to the first mesh network node; record the sender identity and link quality of the received first beacon; record the received beacon link quality information in the beacon from the wireless mesh network node to the first mesh network node; retransmit the received first beacon to other network nodes, the retransmitted beacon comprising link quality information for beacons received in the wireless mesh network node during previous sleep/wake cycles; receive an additional beacon within the same sleep/wake cycle; determine if the additional beacon received is a retransmission of the first beacon; if the additional beacon is a retransmission of the first beacon, determine received data link quality for the additional beacon, store the determined received data link quality and the link quality information received with the additional beacon in a bidirectional link quality table and discard the additional beacon; if the additional beacon is not a retransmission of the first beacon, determine received data link quality for the additional beacon, store the determined received data link quality and the link quality information received with the additional beacon in a bidirectional link quality table and retransmit the additional beacon; transmit received data link quality information stored in the bidirectional link quality table during retransmission of each beacon; sleep until a second predetermined time in a next sleep/wake cycle; and determine that a second network node cannot receive data from the network node if link quality information from the network node to the second network node is not received in a beacon at the network node.