Patent ID: 7061925

Claim:
A method for determining a route for routing data packets between nodes in a wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping peer-to-peer communication network, the method comprising: when one of the nodes acts as a source node and attempts to send a data packet to a destination, the source node determines if the destination is another node within the network or outside the network; if the source node determines that the destination is outside the network, the node transmits the data packet for delivery to an intelligent access point of the network with which the source node is associated; if the source node determines that the destination is another node in the network, the source node checks a routing table to determine if a route to the destination exists; if the routing table indicates that a route to the destination exists, the source node transmits the data packet for delivery to the destination via the route; if no route to the destination is present in the routing table, the source node transmits the data packet for delivery to the intelligent access point with which the source node is associated, and transmits a status request message to that intelligent access point; upon receipt of the status request message, the intelligent access point determines whether its routing table include a route to the destination and if so, the intelligent access point sends a status reply message having a first condition indicating a found route to the source node, and if not, the intelligent access point sends the status reply message having a second condition to the source node; and upon receiving the status reply message having the first condition, the source node utilizes the found route to the destination and transmits additional data packets addressed to the destination for delivery to the destination via the found route, and upon receiving the status reply message having the second condition, the source node transmits the additional data packets to the intelligent access point for delivery to the destination.