Patent ID: 8644225

Claim:
A method for determining a transmission channel for multi-hop transmission of a data packet from a plurality of data channels in ad-hoc network, the ad-hoc network comprising at least one local peer group, the local peer group having a plurality of moving vehicle as network nodes, the method comprising the steps of: determining available channels for next-hop neighbor routing for data packet transmission at a node by scanning MAC layer channels; transmitting a first list of available non-conflicting wireless channels or frequencies based on channel usage to at least one other node wherein said transmitting step includes adding the first list of available channels to a membership report message or a heartbeat control message; receiving, from the at least one other node, a second list of available channels for the at least one other node; creating by a group header an available channel table including the first and second lists of available channels; selecting by each node or by a group header a transmitting channel for a data packet based upon information in the available channel table wherein the first list, second list, and the selected channel is transmitted on a dedicated control channel; and advertising by each node the selected channel to the at least one other node.