Patent ID: 7590068

Claim:
A communication network comprising a plurality of stations each able to transmit and receive data so that the network can transmit a message comprising a plurality of data packets from an originating station to a destination station via at least one opportunistically selected intermediate station, wherein each station is configured to: select, according to a predetermined criteria, a probing channel for the transmission of probe signals to other stations; transmit neighbor gathering probe signals of the selected probing channel to other stations which receive the transmitted neighbor gathering probe signals from a probing station responding directly or indirectly to indicate to the probing station availability of the other stations as the destination station or as neighbor stations; maintain a neighbor table comprising details of other available stations identified using the transmitted neighbor gathering probe signals; transmit, when needing to send data to the destination station, gradient gathering probe signals to, and to receive gradient gathering probe signals from, stations in the neighbor table to gather gradient data indicative of a cost of connectivity to said destination station (C ND ) from the stations in the neighbor table and from the originating station needing to send data to the destination station; and maintain, as needed, a gradient table comprising data related to a cost of communicating with each neighbor station from each station (C N ), with the destination station from each station, and with the destination station from each of the stations represented in each station's neighbor table; allow each client station to select an intermediate station, from the stations in its neighbor table having lower costs of communicating to said destination station than each client station, for an opportunistic onward transmission of data from the originating station to the destination station when a minimum sum of all costs Σ(C N +C ND ) min of communicating to the destination station from the originating station does not exceed a maximum cost (maxCost) or does not exceed a current best cost to destination (C D ) or does not exceed a frozen cost (C DF ), wherein the C DF comprises the C D previously maintained in the gradient table; and prevent each station from opportunistically transmitting data from the originating station to the destination station when Σ(C N +C ND ) min >C D and/or maxCost>C D and/or C DF >C D .