Methods and apparatus for providing a transparent bridge associated with a wireless mesh network

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• content stored on the computer readable medium, wherein the content, when accessed, is configured to program a computer to:
• receive a broadcast data packet intended for a destination node, wherein the computer is one of a plurality of mesh nodes associated with a wireless mesh network and communicatively coupling the wireless mesh network to a communication network, the source node is one of the plurality of mesh nodes of the wireless mesh network, and the destination node is one of a plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• broadcast the broadcast data packet received via the wireless mesh network over the communication network to determine that the destination node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• append a bridging table with bridging information indicating that the destination is node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• receive another packet including destination address information of the destination node;
• identify bridging information associated with the destination address information from the bridging table;
• and
• process the other packet based on the bridging information.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of communication interfaces configured to receive a broadcast data racket from a source node intended for a destination node and to communicatively couple a plurality of mesh nodes of wireless mesh network to a communication network, the communication network different than the wireless mesh network, wherein the source node is one of the plurality of mesh nodes of the wireless mesh network and the destination node is one of a plurality of nodes of the communication network, and wherein the plurality of communication interfaces is further configured to broadcast the broadcast data packet received via the wireless mesh network over the communication network to determine that the destination node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• an identifier to append a bridging table with bridging information indicating that the destination node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network and to identify, from the bridging table, bridging information associated with the destination information of another received packet;
• and
• a handler to process the other packet based on the bridging information.

A system comprising:

• a flash memory;
• a receiver to receive a broadcast data packet intended for a destination node, the broadcast data packet received from one of a plurality of mesh nodes of a wireless mesh network;
• a transmitter coupled to the receiver to broadcast the broadcast data packet received via the wireless mesh network over a communication network communicatively coupled to the wireless mesh network to determine that the destination node is one of a plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• a processor coupled to the flash memory to append a bridging table stored in the memory with bridging information indicating the destination node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network;
• and
• wherein the receiver is further configured to receive another packet including destination information of the destination node, and the processor is further configured to identify the bridging information from the bridging table indicating the destination node is one of the plurality of nodes of the communication network and process the other packet on the bridging information.