Patent ID: 8023482

Claim:
Logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to: monitor one or more clients associated with a hierarchical wireless mesh network and the respective hop counts of the clients to a root mesh node of the wireless mesh network, wherein the wireless mesh network further comprises one or more mesh access points; determine, responsive to one or more events, a first client data rate for one or more clients of the wireless mesh network based on the number of current clients and the respective hop counts of the current clients; apply the first client data rate to the wireless mesh network for respective one or more clients individually by using a rate control algorithm to control the flow of packets destined for, or transmitted by, the respective clients into the wireless mesh network according to the first client data rate for each client; determine, responsive to one or more additional events, that a sum of all client hop counts in the wireless mesh network has changed; responsive to the determination that the sum of all of the client hop counts has changed, determine a second client data rate for the one or more clients; determine whether the second client data rate is different from the first client data rate by a threshold; responsive to the determination that the second client data rate is different from the first client data rate by the threshold, apply the second client data rate to the wireless mesh network; and responsive to the determination that the second client data rate is not different from the first client data rate by the threshold, continue to apply the first client data rate to the wireless mesh network.