Patent ID: 7545765

Claim:
A method for forwarding information in a multi-hop network having multiple nodes, said method comprising the steps of: jointly selecting, for at least one transmitting node, i) relay node among multiple relay candidate nodes and ii) at least one of: a) destination among multiple destinations represented in the transmit queue of said at least one transmitting node; and b) flow among multiple flows represented in said at least one transmitting node; selecting a set of information from the transmit queue of said at least one transmitting node based on at least one of selected destination and flow; and transmitting the selected set of information to the selected relay node wherein said method further comprises the steps of: said at least one transmitting node transmitting an interrogation message to said multiple relay candidate nodes in the network; and each one of said multiple relay candidate nodes replying, in response to said interrogation message, with a response message for said at least one transmitting node; and wherein said step of jointly selecting is performed at least partly based on said response messages from said multiple relay candidate nodes.