Patent ID: 8094637

Claim:
An apparatus configured to operate in a first mesh point, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and a mesh path module configured to (i) receive a frame to be transmitted from the first mesh point with destination to a second mesh point, (ii) determine whether a mesh path from the first mesh point to the second mesh point is stored in the memory, and (iii) select a mesh path in a mesh network between the first mesh point and the second mesh point in the mesh network, wherein the mesh path module comprises a neighbor discovery module configured to determine whether the second mesh point is one hop from the first mesh point (i) when a mesh path between the first mesh point and the second mesh point is not stored in the memory and (ii) prior to mesh discovery for a mesh path between the first mesh point and the second mesh point being performed, a one-hop mesh path module configured to select a one-hop mesh path between the first mesh point and the second mesh point when (i) the second mesh point is one hop from the first mesh point and (ii) a mesh path between the first mesh point and the second mesh point is not stored in the memory, and a multi-hop mesh path module configured to discover a multi-hop mesh path between the first mesh point and the second mesh point only when the second mesh point is not one hop from the first mesh point.