Patent ID: 8711704

Claim:
A mesh network comprising: multiple nodes including a plurality of star nodes and a plurality of routing nodes, each star node configured to transmit and receive wireless signals, each routing node configured to transmit and receive wireless signals for communication with at least one of the star nodes; and a network control device configured to communicate with one or more of the multiple nodes; wherein at least one of the multiple nodes is configured to perform a connectivity assessment and to send information regarding the connectivity assessment to the network control device, the connectivity assessment indicating a measure of a quality of wireless communication between the at least one node and at least one other device in the mesh network; and wherein the network control device is configured to use the information regarding the connectivity assessment to define a communication relationship between the at least one node and the at least one other device, the communication relationship indicating that data is to be transmitted wirelessly between the at least one node and the at least one other device.