Patent ID: 7940716

Claim:
In a wireless network comprising a plurality of nodes, a method of maintaining, by a first node, information regarding communications links between nodes in the wireless network, the method comprising the steps of: (I) for each communications link that is established with another node, recording an identification of the other node; (II) for each message received by the first node from the other node through the communications link with the other node, recording a network pathway by which the message has been sent in the wireless network, the network pathway identifying the nodes and the communications links therebetween in the wireless network by which the message has been sent; and (III) communicating, by the first node, the message to a subsequent node in the wireless network if the message is intended for receipt by a node other than the first node, the communicating of the message by the first node including the steps of, (a) determining whether one or more network pathways are known by the first node from the first node to the destination node of the message; (b) communicating with just a single node within the communications range of the first node if a single network pathway to the destination node is known by the first node, the single node being the node identified next in the single network pathway after the first node, including sending, to the single node, (i) the message, (ii) the single network pathway, and (iii) the link quality between the first node and the other node from which the message was received by the first node; (c) if more than one network pathway to the destination node is known by the first node, then, (i) determining a preferred network pathway from the known network pathways in accordance with an algorithm, and (ii) communicating with just a single node within the communications range of the first node, the single node being the node identified next in the preferred network pathway after the first node, including sending, to the single node, (A) the message, (B) the preferred network pathway, and (C) the link quality between the first node and the other node from which the message was received by the first node; and (d) if no network pathway to the destination node is known by the first node, then communicating with one or more nodes within the communications range of the first node, including sending, (i) the message, and (ii) the link quality between the first node and the other node from which the message was received by the first node.