Patent ID: 8798048

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a first network node, a beacon message from a second network node, wherein the beacon message includes an advertised cost of routing messages to a destination through the second network node; measuring, based on receiving the beacon message, a signal quality associated with the beacon message; determining, based on information included in the beacon message, whether the second network node is a next hop node of the first network node for routing messages to the destination; based on determining that the second network node is a next hop node of the first network node for routing messages to the destination, selecting a candidate next hop list of entries corresponding to the destination; determining whether the signal quality exceeds a threshold; determining whether the second network node is present in the candidate next hop list; based on determining that the signal quality exceeds the threshold and determining that the second network node is not present in the candidate next hop list, determining at least one of whether the candidate next hop list is empty and whether a timer is active; and based on determining that at least one of the candidate next hop list is empty and the timer is active, adding to an entry in the candidate next hop list information from the beacon message, including at least one of an identifier of the second network node, a hop count from the second network node to the destination and a list of identifiers of nodes in a routing path from the second network node to the destination.