Patent ID: 8121053

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for configuring wireless mesh access points of a wireless mesh network, the method comprising: monitoring by monitoring logic, via a dedicated monitoring antenna of a current mesh access point (AP), routing information of a plurality of neighboring mesh APs, the current mesh AP being one of a plurality mesh APs of a wireless mesh network, wherein each of the mesh APs includes an uplink antenna to communicate with an uplink mesh AP, a downlink antenna to communicate with a downlink mesh AP, a local link antenna to communicate with a local client of each mesh AP, and a monitoring antenna for monitoring neighboring mesh APs; dynamically reconfiguring and rerouting traffic of an uplink antenna of the wireless mesh AP from a first routing path coupled to a first uplink mesh AP to a second routing path coupled to a second uplink mesh AP, if the second routing path has a better routing condition than the first routing path based on the monitored routing information associated with the first uplink mesh AP and the second uplink mesh AP obtained via the dedicated monitoring antenna of the mesh AP; monitoring, via the dedicated monitoring antenna, traffic conditions of channels used by neighboring mesh APs, including an existing channel used by a downlink antenna and a local link antenna of the current mesh AP; and dynamically assigning a new channel to a downlink interface associated with the downlink antenna of the current mesh AP if congestion of the existing channel used by the downlink interface of the current mesh AP reaches a predetermined threshold based on the monitored traffic conditions.