Patent ID: 8130700

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: discovering neighboring nodes in a wireless communication network; receiving information on at least one access point of the wireless communication network, the access point information including a path cost for at least one hop between nodes along a segment of a route to the at least one access point; selecting a plurality of nodes among the discovered neighbor nodes as next hop nodes for communicating with the at least one access point; receiving routing information from at least one of the selected next hop nodes; constructing a routing table from the routing information received from the selected next hop nodes, wherein the routing table includes at least one alternate path to a given destination node in the communications network; storing the routing table; receiving a packet to be forwarded to a specified destination node in the wireless communications network; upon receipt of the packet, selecting a route from among the routes stored in the routing table, for forwarding the received packet to the specified destination node; and forwarding the packet to the next hop in the selected route.