Patent ID: 7668146

Claim:
An Internet-oriented mobile ad-hoc network comprising: at least one fixed gateway node, the at least one fixed gateway node being in communication with the Internet; and a plurality of wireless nodes communicatively accessible downstream from the at least one fixed gateway node through any number of intermediate nodes and being able to communicate upstream with the at least one fixed gateway node through any number of intermediate nodes, each of the wireless nodes including wireless transceivers, each of the wireless nodes further including, for each of the at least one fixed gateway node, an upstream routing table (URT), a peer table (PT), a downstream neighborhood table (DNT) and a downstream routing table (DRT), each of the wireless nodes being configured to use the associated tables to make routing decisions, some of the wireless nodes being mobile wireless nodes, some of the mobile wireless nodes being configured to act as a relay for other wireless nodes that cannot directly access the at least one fixed gateway node; wherein the URT of a wireless node Ni is updated independently by the wireless node Ni and lists each upstream neighboring node that is closer by one hop, to a particular fixed gateway node than is the node Ni, together with the hop count from the upstream neighboring node to the particular fixed gateway; wherein the PT of the wireless node Ni is updated independently by the wireless node Ni and lists each peer node, defined as a neighboring node that has equal distance, as measured by hop count, to a particular fixed gateway node as the wireless node Ni, together with an associated hop count to the particular fixed gateway; wherein the DNT of the wireless node Ni is undated independently by the wireless node Ni and lists each neighboring downstream node that is one hope count further away from a particular fixed gateway node than the node Ni, together with the hop count of the downstream neighboring node to the particular fixed gateway node; wherein the DRT of the wireless node Ni is undated independently by the wireless node Ni and lists each downstream node Nk, as defined by a node that can communicate with the node Ni and is further away from the node Ni, as measured by hop counts of the nodes Ni and Nk to a particular fixed gateway node, together with the hop count of the downstream node Nk to the node Ni; wherein each node periodically broadcasts a trigger message that comprises a node identification and hop count corresponding to a particular node to inform neighboring nodes that the particular node is present; wherein each node independently and periodically receives and processes control signals from neighboring nodes; and wherein each node updates the tables within itself and each node communicates changes to neighboring nodes.