Patent ID: 7929546

Claim:
A method for determining time slot allocation along a route for a communication of a data stream between a source node and a destination node in an ad hoc multi-hopping network, the method comprising: performing a slot allocation between each node and its next hop node along the route beginning with the source node through to the destination node, the slot allocation comprising: selecting, by a node, a next hop node along the route; sending a Scout Request message (SRM) from the node to the next hop node, wherein the SRM comprises: quality of service (QoS) requirements to transmit the data stream, and a Transmission Possible Slot Map (TPSM); determining at the next hop node whether it can allocate one or more of the time slots of the TPSM while meeting the QoS requirements; allocating, at the next hop node, the one or more time slots to transmit the data stream when the next hop node determines it can allocate one or more time slots of the TPSM while meeting the QoS requirements; determining by the next hop node whether it is the destination node; when the next hop node is not the destination node: sending a Scout Reply message from the next hop node to the node in response to the allocating operation; announcing the one or more selected slots to one or more neighbor nodes in response to receiving the scout reply message, so the one or more neighbor nodes can update each associated slot status, by sending a Scout Acknowledgement message from the node to the one or more neighbor nodes; and updating the SRM by the next hop node prior to sending the SRM; and repeating the slot allocation between each next hop node and its further next hop node along the route to the destination node.