Patent ID: 8483111

Claim:
A mesh node of an infrastructure wireless local area network ‘WLAN’, the mesh node comprising: an antenna; a WLAN radio coupled to the antenna; a WLAN controller coupled to the WLAN radio; a processor coupled to the WLAN controller; a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing code which, when executed by the processor, controls the WLAN controller to withhold communication services for one or more periods of time a cumulative duration of which is related to power consumption of the mesh node when handling an admissible load, where the admissible load was determined from simulations of a system comprising the mesh node, a battery coupled to the mesh node, and a device coupled to the battery that is able to harness energy from a source of renewable energy, and where the simulations involve meteorological data related to the source of renewable energy in a vicinity of the mesh node, wherein the admissible load was determined to preserve sufficient energy in the battery so that the mesh node is able to provide at least a prescribed minimum level of activity subject to a target outage probability.