Link management and routing in hybrid mesh networks

A wireless network device comprising:

• a memory configured to store a routing table, each entry of the routing table associated with a peer node;
• a processor configured to determine the existence of a peer node, and to add an entry associated with the peer node into the routing table stored in the memory;
• the processor and a transceiver configured to validate each peer node having an entry stored in the routing table, wherein validating each peer node includes confirming that the peer node is still a peer node of the wireless network device, wherein on a condition that a peer node is no longer a peer node of the wireless network device, deleting the peer node from the routing table;
• and
• the processor and transceiver further configured to receive traffic, to determine whether a destination of the traffic is a peer node having an entry stored in the routing table, and when the determination is positive, to accelerate the traffic to an interface associated with the peer node associated with the destination of the traffic, and to transmit the traffic via the interface;
• wherein validating each peer node includes:
• the transceiver configured to receive a broadcasted hello message from a peer node;
• the processor configured to determine, based on the broadcasted hello message, one or more interfaces to communicate with the peer node;
• the processor is further configured to determine costs for links of the one or more interfaces, wherein a highest cost link of the one or more interfaces is blocked and a lowest cost link of the one or more interfaces is unblocked;
• the transceiver is further configured to transmit an announce message that indicates the highest cost link as blocked and the lowest cost link as unblocked;
• and
• the transceiver is further configured to receive another announce message, wherein the another announce message includes information about unblocked and blocked links to update the routing table.