Patent ID: 7773542

Claim:
A wireless mesh access point (AP), comprising: an uplink interface; a downlink interface; a local link interface; a routing unit coupled to the uplink, downlink, and local link interfaces, wherein the routing unit is configured to route data packets to other wireless mesh access points (APs), including communicating with an uplink AP via the uplink interface and communicating with a downlink AP via the downlink interface, wherein the uplink and downlink wireless interfaces utilize different communication channels having different communication frequencies, wherein the routing unit is configured to communicate with one or more local clients via the local link interface; and a memory coupled to the routing unit for storing a routing table and an interface mapping table, wherein the routing table includes a first plurality of entries, each having a MAC address and an interface ID identifying an interface associated with the MAC address of the respective entry, and wherein the interface mapping table includes a second plurality of entries, each having an interface ID identifying an interface, a source MAC address, and a destination MAC address, the source and destination MAC addresses being associated with the interface ID of the respective entry, wherein in response to a first packet received from a local client via the local link interface, the routing unit is configured to determine, via the routing table, an egress interface based on a destination media access control (MAC) address of the first packet, the egress interface being one of the uplink interface and the downlink interface, wherein based on the egress interface determined using the routing table, the routing unit is configured to determine, using the interface mapping table, a source MAC address associated with the egress interface and a destination MAC address associated with a next hop wireless mesh AP, and wherein the routing unit is configured to generate a second packet by encrypting the first packet therein, using the source MAC address and the destination MAC address obtained via the interface mapping table as source and destination MAC addresses of the second packet, and to transmit the second packet via the determined egress interface to the next hop wireless mesh AP in the wireless mesh network, the first packet being encrypted within a payload of the second packet.