Management of Radio Frequencies in a Wireless or Hybrid Mesh Network

A communication node for use in a wireless or hybrid mesh communication system, the communication system comprising at least one family formed of a parent node and at least one child node communicating over a frequency channel, comprising:

• first modules adapted to assign a set of spare frequency channel to each of the at least one family, and
• second modules adapted to receive a request for a new frequency channel from a parent node of the at least one family, the request being sent by the parent node when its set of spare frequency channels is empty, and to provide the new frequency channel to the parent node.

A method of managing radio frequencies within a wireless or hybrid mesh communication system, comprising the steps of:

• assigning an in-use frequency channel to each local family of nodes,
• distributing spare frequency channels among the local families of nodes,
• changing the in-use frequency channel of at least one selected local family of nodes to a new frequency channel selected among its spare frequency channels, if any, or among the spare frequency channels of another local family of nodes if the at least one selected local family of nodes has no spare frequency channels.

A communication node comprising modules adapted to monitor at least one frequency channel for at least one of Dynamic Frequency Selection events, Media Access Control addresses, and Received Signal Strength Intensity.