Patent ID: 7733797

Claim:
In a wireless communication system forming a mesh of networked nodes, a method of extending the mesh of networked nodes comprising: identifying a node that is within wireless communication range of the mesh of networked nodes, but is initially unconnected to the mesh of networked nodes, wherein the node comprises a plurality of antennas; reserving, by a computer apparatus, one of the plurality of antennas of the node as a free antenna to provide a radio link for mesh verification operations; for each of the one or more remaining antennas of the node, identifying one or more transmission paths between the node and a destination node detectable via the one or more remaining antennas, each transmission path identified comprising a plurality of attribute values: a) comparing an attribute value from each transmission path against a criterion, b) selecting a transmission path with an attribute value matching the criterion, and c) connecting the one or more remaining antennas of the node with the destination node via the selected transmission path, the node now connected within the mesh of networked nodes via the one or more remaining antennas; and repeating steps a-c until all of the one or more remaining antennas of the node are either connected to a respective destination node via a respective selected transmission path or until no additional transmission paths are identifiable via the one or more remaining antennas of the node.