A communications method includes determining, by a first platoon member, at least one second platoon member, where the first platoon member and the at least one second platoon member belong to a same platoon, and signal quality of a communication link from the first platoon member to each second platoon member is less than a first preset quality threshold, determining, by the first platoon member, a target communications node, where signal quality of a communication link from the target communications node to each second platoon member is greater than or equal to the first preset quality threshold, and sending, by the first platoon member, to-be-sent data to each second platoon member through the target communications node.

In an adaptive route wireless network and bi-directional protocol, each computing device along a route to a gateway appends the previous node's network address to downstream messages as they are transmitted along the route from an originating computing device to the gateway. The list of appended network addresses thus records the route taken by the downstream network message through the adaptive route network. A server computing device maintains a route table including the list of appended network addresses received with each downstream message. To send unsolicited upstream messages to any computing device on the wireless network, the server generates an upstream network message that includes the appended network address(es) from the portion of the route table corresponding to the destination computing device. The upstream route to the destination computing device is thus contained in the list of appended network addresses within the network message.

In an adaptive route wireless network and bi-directional protocol, each computing device along a route to a gateway appends the previous node's network address to downstream messages as they are transmitted along the route from an originating computing device to the gateway. The list of appended network addresses thus records the route taken by the downstream network message through the adaptive route network. A server computing device maintains a route table including the list of appended network addresses received with each downstream message. To send unsolicited upstream messages to any computing device on the wireless network, the server generates an upstream network message that includes the appended network address(es) from the portion of the route table corresponding to the destination computing device. The upstream route to the destination computing device is thus contained in the list of appended network addresses within the network message.

Mesh device communication is provided. A dictionary of indexes corresponding to different messages is stored to a cache memory of an access device. A message is received via a transceiver of the access device. The cache memory is accessed to look up the message to identify an index corresponding to the message. The message is propagated, via the transceiver, to a wireless access device mesh network including a plurality of other access devices by broadcasting the index of the message.

Mesh device communication is provided. A dictionary of indexes corresponding to different messages is stored to a cache memory of an access device. A message is received via a transceiver of the access device. The cache memory is accessed to look up the message to identify an index corresponding to the message. The message is propagated, via the transceiver, to a wireless access device mesh network including a plurality of other access devices by broadcasting the index of the message.

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for implementing multi-user (MU) communication in a wireless mesh network. A first mesh node or a network management unit may collect information from various mesh nodes and form MU association groups based on the information. An MU association group may include an MU group head that coordinates MU group communication to or from member mesh nodes that are in the MU association group. For example, the MU group head may coordinate orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource unit allocations, or MU multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MEMO) spatial stream configurations, among other examples. Different MU association groups may be formed for uplink or downlink traffic. The creation of MU association groups may enable a wireless mesh network to realize the advantages of MU group communication within the flexible topology of a mesh environment.

An apparatus, system, method, and computer-readable recording media perform smart control in a wireless network, which includes a plurality of wireless devices. Configuration parameters are obtained to set one wireless device as an active master device in the wireless network. The active master device receives updates in the configuration parameters and learned station (STA) information, and periodically transmits the updates to the configuration parameters and the learned STA information to the other wireless devices in the wireless network. Any one of the other wireless devices in the wireless network can use the updates to the configuration parameters and the learned STA information to be set as a new active master device in the wireless network when the active master device becomes out of network.

A distributed routing system is provided for use in a communication network, wherein the distributed routing system includes at least one cluster comprising a first plurality of cluster elements from which a second plurality of cluster elements is selected, wherein each of the cluster elements comprised in the second plurality of cluster elements is configured to operate as a cluster leader candidate and wherein one of that second plurality of cluster elements is selected on a temporary basis to act as cluster leader.

A first network device in a high-availability cluster may configure a first wireless channel for a wireless control link. The first network device may establish, using the first wireless channel, the wireless control link with a second network device in the high-availability cluster. The first network device may configure a second wireless channel for a wireless fabric link. The first network device may establish, using the second wireless channel, the wireless fabric link with the second network device.

A gateway device and a configuration client for supporting selective forwarding of messages published to a group address or a virtual address in a wireless mesh network of communicatively coupled communication devices, such as a Bluetooth Mesh system. The configuration client maintains a mapping between unicast addresses of communication devices and group and virtual addresses in the network. The gateway device receives, from the configuration client, unicast addresses of those communication devices collectively identified by the group or virtual address in a received message. When the retrieved unicast addresses are all serviced by the gateway device, the message is transmitted by the gateway device on all interfaces corresponding to the communication devices addressed by the retrieved unicast addresses. When the retrieved unicast addresses are not all serviced by the gateway device, the message is transmitted by the gateway device on all except one of the interfaces.