Patent ID: 8401464

Claim:
An Apparatus for use in a wireless multi-hop relay network arranged in a tree topology, the apparatus comprising: one or more relay stations along a single tree branch in the tree topology of the wireless multi-hop network, at least one relay station being a part of a first virtual base station (VBS), and at least one relay station having a unique virtual base station identifier (VBS-ID) associated with a path that includes one or more of the relay stations in the first VBS; wherein logic in at least one relay station in the first VBS performs the following functions in response to receipt of a message from an upstream station in the first VBS: search a routing table of the relay station for a received tunnel connection identifier (T-CID); if the received T-CID is not in the routing table, drop the message; if the received T-CID is in the routing table, and the received T-CID is associated with a VBS-ID that is associated with another relay station, then forward the message to the another relay station; if the received T-CID is in the routing table and the received T-CID is associated with a subscriber station, then remove the received T-CID and forward the message to the subscriber station via a connection identifier associated with the subscriber station; and wherein a last relay station in the branch has logic for using the VBS-ID with which it is associated for communicating with an attached subscriber station such that communications between a base station and the subscriber station occur via the first VBS.