Patent ID: 7505426

Claim:
A method of selecting at least one routing path between an access node and at least one of a plurality of gateways comprising: at least one gateway originating and simultaneously broadcasting beacons from a plurality of radios over a plurality of channels, each channel different from other of the plurality of channels, at least one radio broadcasting the beacons over a corresponding one of the plurality of channels, the beacons being broadcast over each of the plurality of channels at a predetermined rate; the access node simultaneously receiving over a plurality of channels with a plurality of access node radios, at least one access node radio corresponding with each of the plurality of channels, beacons from at least one upstream access node or gateway, the beacons providing information of selected upstream paths between each of the upstream access nodes and the plurality of gateways; and the access node selecting a routing path between the access node and at least one of the plurality of gateways, based on a persistence of successfully received beacons, the selected routing path including multiple different channels; the access node simultaneously re-broadcasting beacons with the plurality of access node radios, the re-broadcast beacons corresponding to the selected routing path, over each of the plurality of channels, the rebroadcast beacons modified by the access node to include information of the selected routing path.