ROUTING METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A WIRELESS NETWORK

A method and system for selecting a route in a wireless network for the transmission of a data packet between wireless nodes in said network using a modified link-state routing algorithm wherein only a limited number of broadcast messages are generated to synchronize the link-state database throughout the wireless network. A subset of nodes called portal nodes within the network are elected to do the broadcasting for the entire network. Each portal node broadcasts an announcement of its identity to all of the wireless nodes. Each wireless node responds to these broadcasts to select one of the portal nodes as its root portal node. It then identifies a unicast route back to its root portal node, and sends a link-state register message to this portal node. These link-state register messages received by each portal node are aggregated by them and are broadcast to each of the wireless nodes for storage. When a data packet is thereafter received by a wireless node from a neighboring node, it detects if the data packet satisfies one of a plurality of predetermined conditions and rebroadcasts the data packet to neighboring wireless nodes if none of the conditions is satisfied.