Method and System for Automatic Selection of Detour Paths in a Wireless Mesh Network

A method of detour path determination for data packet re-routing in a mesh network, wherein the mesh network comprises a plurality of N nodes, with N being an integer higher than 1, arranged according to a network topology with each node having a K-hops neighborhood knowledge of the network topology, with 1≦K<N, primary paths are predefined for routing data packets within the mesh network, each primary path comprising a predefined ordered sequence of nodes,

• wherein, in order to obtain at least one detour path for at least part of a primary path PPx comprising a ordered sequence of nodes with a head node I and an end node J, the method comprises:
• a) generating at the head node I and sending to the node following it in the ordered sequence of nodes a request data packet, the request data packet comprising information enabling the request data packet to travel through the ordered sequence of nodes according to a forward direction till the end node J is reached;
• b) generating at the end node J upon receipt of the request data packet and sending to the node preceding it in the ordered sequence of nodes a response data packet, the response data packet comprising information representative of the K-hops neighborhood knowledge of the network topology of node J, and information enabling the response data packet to travel back through the ordered sequence of nodes till the head node I is reached according to a backward direction;
• and
• c) processing at the head node I upon receipt of the response data packet the information representative of the K-hops neighborhood knowledge of node J so as to obtain a merged knowledge of the network topology comprising the K-hops neighborhood knowledge of node I and the K-hops neighborhood knowledge of node J;
• the head node I then using the merged knowledge of the network topology to carry out a detour path computation to determine if there is the at least one detour path for the at least part of the primary path PPx.