Patent ID: 7843819

Claim:
A computer implemented method of providing channel access coordination in a wireless mesh which enables the parallel use of multiple channels, the method comprising: determining whether a node has a plurality of radios, and when said node does not have a plurality of radios, then transmitting control and management frames and data traffic on a same channel; and when said node has a plurality of radios then assigning a first one of said plurality of radios as a control radio to a control channel, said control channel used to exchange control and management frames; assigning a remainder of said plurality of radios as data radios to data channels, said data channels used to transmit and receiving data; receiving acknowledgements for said data on said control channel; and determining an access priority wherein said transmitting and receiving data on said at least one data channel is performed in accordance with said access priority; and determining a node priority wherein said transmitting and receiving data on said at least one data channel is performed in accordance with said node priority, wherein said determining node priority comprises: determining the amount of queued traffic at said node; determining the number of transmit radios at said node; and determining the node priority based on the amount of queued traffic at the node and the number of radios at the node by dividing the amount of queued traffic by the number of radios.