Patent ID: 7626931

Claim:
A method for coordinating wireless message packet transmission for a plurality of wireless devices of a multi-hop wireless network having a plurality of nodes so as to regulate VoIP traffic load in the wireless network, the method comprising controlling the admission of message packets into a neighborhood of nodes of the plurality of nodes based on an estimate of traffic in the neighborhood by: estimating at each node in the neighborhood an amount of available bandwidth from wireless channels shared in the neighborhood; receiving a request for a new VoIP call; estimating a required bandwidth for the new VoIP call on an outgoing link based on call request information and a current channel state, the estimating of the required bandwidth including taking into consideration, when calculating the estimated required bandwidth, that the VoIP call comprises the message packets which are delay-sensitive and are to be delivered in near-order and near-real-time by way of the multi-hop wireless network; determining based on the estimated required bandwidth and the available bandwidth that the available bandwidth is sufficient to support the new VoIP call; upon determining that the available bandwidth is sufficient to support the call, a particular one of the plurality of the nodes which is to host the VoIP call broadcasting reservation information to the other nodes to reserve the estimated required bandwidth for the new VoIP call on the outgoing link, the broadcast reservation information being piggybacked with routing discovery/query messages; and releasing the reserved estimated required bandwidth after one of a timeout and an explicit release message, the estimating of each of the available and required bandwidths including taking into consideration, when calculating the estimated bandwidth, time required to successfully transmit packets over a channel including actual packet transmission cost and ancillary costs relating to packet collision avoidance in the wireless network, the ancillary costs including overhead time required for carrier sensing, back-off, MAC ACK, and retransmission.