Patent ID: 8027284

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving information associated with a plurality of nodes in a multi-hop wireless network, the plurality of nodes communicably coupled in an arrangement via a plurality of broadcast channels; and determining a subset of the plurality of nodes over each broadcast channel on the multi-hop wireless network that is responsible for sending acknowledgment information, in response to receipt or lack of receipt of transmissions, back to senders of transmissions; wherein determining the subset of nodes comprises: determining whether a node is serving a predetermined number of end users; verifying relative importance of service capacity of the node with respect to a parent node; determining whether the node has one or more predetermined channel conditions; and designating the node as a feedback node based on results of determining whether the node is serving the predetermined number of end users, verifying relative importance of service capacity of the node with respect to the parent node, and determining whether the node has the one or more predetermined channel conditions.