Patent ID: 7593376

Claim:
An ad hoc network, comprising: a plurality of nodes, wherein each node is configured to generate an attribute message comprising parameters associated with that node, and to transmit the attribute message; and a broadcast manager node configured to receive the attribute messages from each node and to elect at least one of said nodes as a broadcast relay node based on the attribute messages, wherein each node is configured to generate a weighted value based on the parameters associated with that node, the weighted value provides a metric for ranking that node as a candidate for election as a broadcast relay node, and the attribute message transmitted from each node further comprises the weighted value associated with each particular node, and wherein at least one of: a) each node is configured to nominate at least one nominee node for election as a broadcast relay node, and the broadcast manager node is configured to rank each nominee node based on the weighted values associated with the nominee nodes to determine candidate nodes, and to elect at least one of the candidate nodes as the broadcast relay node, or b) the weighted value is a probability measure, and each node is configured to probabilistically elect itself as a broadcast relay node based on its probability measure by sending an announcement message to its neighbor nodes.