Patent ID: 7804807

Claim:
A node configured to manage a security association with at least one particular neighbor node in a wireless network, the node comprising: a neighbor node table configured to store an entry for at least one neighbor node comprising attributes associated with the neighbor node, wherein the attributes comprise at least one of: Link Quality Measurements (LQMs) which account for the quality of a wireless link with the particular neighbor node; routing metrics which account for metrics along a route to the particular neighbor node; mobility domain information comprising a mobility domain value advertised by the particular neighbor node; mobility information about the particular neighbor node; and security association state information for the particular node; a security module configured to store security association information associated with each neighbor node, and a routing module communicatively coupled to the security module, wherein the routing module is configured to: determine, based on particular attributes associated with each neighbor node in the neighbor node table, at least one of the particular neighbor nodes from the neighbor node table that the node will attempt to establish a security association with; select at least one of the particular neighbor nodes the node will attempt to establish the security association with; and send a first message to the security module to trigger the security module to attempt to establish a particular security association with the particular neighbor node that is selected.