Patent ID: 8144596

Claim:
A method of optimizing communication paths within a mesh network, comprising: initiating a mesh network, the mesh network including at least one mesh device; receiving registration information from each mesh device of the mesh network; storing mesh device information in an accessible memory; responsive to a predetermined trigger, calculating an optimal path from each mesh device, wherein the optimal path includes a set of mesh device addresses corresponding to a set of mesh devices along which a message can be forwarded; transmitting the calculated optimal path to each mesh device; receiving, by the at least one mesh device, a request to transmit a message to a next mesh device; and identifying, by the at least one mesh device, the next mesh device from among a plurality of neighbor mesh devices, wherein identifying the next mesh device further comprises calculating, by the at least one mesh device, a score for a next mesh device according to the calculated optimal path, and a score for an alternative next mesh device according to an alternate optimal path based on at least a link quality index corresponding to signal quality of the alternate optimal path, the link quality index included in neighbor information received in a neighbor exchange from at least one neighbor mesh device and selecting, based on a comparison of the calculated scores, one of the next mesh device according to the calculated optimal path and the alternative next mesh device according to the alternate optimal path.