Method and arrangement for link cost determination for routing in wireless networks

Abstract

The invention relates to determination of a link cost employable in route determination and data forwarding in a multihop communication network (1). This link cost is adapted to the particular characteristics of wireless contention-based networks (1), in which both network nodes (10, 20) involved in node-to-node data forwarding block neighbor nodes (30, 40, 50) that have to defer medium access during the data forwarding. The link cost is determined based on the estimated total number of nodes (30, 40, 50) that are blocked if data is forwarded on a wireless link (12) from a node (10) to another node (20). The link cost may also be based on a per bit normalized expected transmit duration for the data forwarding in combination with said estimated number of nodes. Usage of the link cost in route determination minimizes the number of truly blocked nodes in the network (1) and increased the network capacity.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.