Patent ID: 8355343

Claim:
A method for determining associations in a mesh network, the method comprising: storing information in memory of a first node concerning local throughputs in the mesh network, each local throughput approximating a throughput between the first node and a candidate node, wherein the mesh network includes a plurality of candidate nodes; receiving at the first node information concerning backhaul throughput from one or more candidate nodes in the mesh network, each backhaul throughput approximating a throughput between one of the candidate nodes and a wired border node in the mesh network; executing instructions stored in memory of the first node, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor of the first node determines an uplink throughput for each of the one or more candidate nodes in the mesh network, each uplink throughput being based on at least the stored local throughput associated with one of the candidate nodes and the backhaul throughput associated with the candidate node; connecting the first node to a second node, the second node selected from the plurality of candidate nodes in the mesh network based on at least an uplink throughput determined for the second node; receiving at the first node updated backhaul throughputs associated with each of the plurality of candidate nodes in the network; executing instructions stored in memory of the first node, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor of the first node determines that an updated uplink throughput of a third node exceeds an updated uplink throughout of the second node by a threshold amount; disconnecting the first node from the second node; and connecting the first node to the third node based on the updated uplink throughput of the third node exceeding the updated uplink throughput of the second node by a threshold amount.