Patent ID: 7502334

Claim:
A node comprising: an interface to communicatively couple the node to a first channel and a second channel, the first channel supporting communications in a first logical direction and the second channel supporting communications in a second logical direction; wherein the first channel communicatively couples the node to a first neighbor node and a first neighbor's neighbor node; wherein the second channel communicatively couples the node to the first neighbor node and the first neighbor's neighbor node; and wherein, when the first neighbor node is scheduled to transmit on both the first and second channels and the node receives a first frame of data from the first neighbor node via the first channel, the node: forwards the first frame to the first neighbor's neighbor along the second channel; receives a second frame of data from the first neighbor's neighbor via the first channel; compares at least a portion of the first frame to at least a portion of the second frame; and relays at least one of the first frame and the second frame along the first channel with information indicative of the comparison.