Patent ID: 8848546

Claim:
A channel allocation method, comprising: determining a communication device type from a plurality of communication device types based on information received from neighboring communication devices; allocating a channel according to the communication device type; and transmitting the communication device type and information about the allocated channel to the neighboring communication devices, wherein: the plurality of communication device types comprises a fixed communication device fixed on a single channel and a switching communication device capable of switching channels, among a plurality of channels; the determining of the communication device type comprises: transmitting QUERY messages to the neighboring communication devices when connecting to a wireless mesh network; receiving response messages from the neighboring communication devices in response to the transmitted QUERY messages; and determining the communication device type based on the received response messages; and the determining of the communication device type based on the received response messages comprises determining the communication device type as a fixed communication device when a fixed communication device does not exist among the neighboring communication devices.