Patent ID: 8199701

Claim:
A wireless communication device including a local wireless communication interface operable to establish an ad hoc network in at least one local area, and to perform communication with a destination device through the ad hoc network, comprising: a route discovery unit operable to discover a communication route to the destination device in the ad hoc network; a wide area wireless communication interface operable to perform wide area wireless communication through a wide area wireless communication network; and a wide area wireless communication receiving environment monitoring unit operable to monitor receiving environment of the wide area wireless communication interface, wherein the wide area wireless communication receiving environment monitoring unit activates the route discovery unit for getting the latest communication route in response to a change of receiving environment of the wide area wireless communication interface; a route discovery transmission power determining unit operable to determine a transmission power to be used for transmitting a route request message which is used for getting the communication route to the destination device; and a route discovery transmission power changing unit operable to incrementally increase the transmission power to be used for transmitting the route request message when the route searching unit fails to find the communication route to the destination device with the transmission power determined by the route discovery transmission power determining unit, wherein the route discovery transmission power determining unit determines a normal transmission power when the wireless communication device is requested to immediately send communication data to the destination device, and determines a transmission power lower than the normal transmission power when the wireless communication device is not requested to immediately send communication data to the destination device.