Wireless communication methods and apparatus

A wireless communication method comprising

• receiving, at a wireless relay device, signals from at least a first wireless device and a second wireless device, wherein a signal received from the first wireless device comprises an indication of a path metric for a path from a source node to the first wireless device and a signal received from the second wireless device comprises an indication of a path metric for a path from the source node to the second wireless device;
• using the indications received from the first wireless device and the second wireless device to select a path from the set of paths comprising the path from the source node to the wireless relay device via the first wireless device and the path from the source node to the wireless relay device via the second wireless device;
• determining a path metric for the selected path;
• and
• transmitting an indication of the path metric for the selected path to a third wireless device.

A method of selecting a path from a source node to a destination node in a wireless network, the method comprising

• at a first relay node
• determining a maximum path metric for paths from the source node to the first relay node,
• selecting the path having the maximum path metric as an optimum path from the source node to the first relay node,
• at a second relay node
• determining a maximum path metric for paths from the source node to the second relay node,
• selecting the path having the maximum path metric as an optimum path from the source node to the second relay node,
• receiving an indication of the path metric for the optimum path from the source node to the first relay node and an indication of the path metric for the optimum path from the source node to the second relay node at the destination node;
• determining, at the destination node, the path from the source node to the destination node having the maximum path metric using the indication of the path metric for the optimum path from the source node to the first relay node and the indication of the path metric for the optimum path from the source node to the second relay node at the destination node;
• and
• selecting the path having the maximum path metric as the optimum path from the source node to the destination node.