Patent ID: 7830791

Claim:
A method of routing information packets in a network using a routing protocol, comprising: receiving an information packet at a node in a network, wherein the information packet contains a plurality of metrics relating to a plurality of link state tables, wherein the plurality of metrics include at least two of hop-count, latency, bandwidth capacity, trust, residual energy, link stability, and geographical location; determining a sequence number associated with the plurality of link state table information contained in the information packet; determining if the sequence number associated with the plurality of link state table information contained in the information packet is larger than the sequence number associated with the plurality of link state table information at the node, wherein if it is determined that the sequence number associated with the plurality of link state table information contained in the information packet is larger than the sequence number associated with the plurality of link state table information at the node, updating a plurality of link state tables based on the metric information contained in the information packet, wherein the plurality of link state tables include at least two of a topology table, a next hop table, a neighboring nodes table, a generic metric table, and a weighed distance table; computing routing information based on the plurality of updated link state tables; and routing packets in the network using the computed routing information.