Patent ID: 7031321

Claim:
A dynamic network, comprising: a plurality of nodes for transmitting and receiving information, each of said nodes including local routing tables in which routing information is stored, each of said local routing tables including a first ield containing a time-based network topology change information and a second field containing a time-based indication of when said local routing table has changed as a result of the change in the network topology, each of said nodes is arranged to send an update request to other, addressed ones of said nodes for updating the local routing tables in said node, the update request including time-based table update information indicative of the most recent update of said local routing tables in said requesting node, and each of said addressed nodes is arranged to send at least one update response with updating routing information to the requesting one of said nodes only when said local routing tables of said addressed node reflect more updated routing information than said local routing tables of said requesting node as determined by analysis of said second field in said local routing tables of said addressed node and the table update information in the update request, said requesting node being arranged to consider a change in said local routing table only when the at least one update response with updating routing information being sent by one of said addressed nodes indicates a later change in the network topology or an equally up-to-date network topology and a more desirable data transmission.