System and method to facilitate the use of multiple radios to increase the capacity of a wireless communication network

A wireless communication network comprising:

• an origination node comprising a plurality of radios;
• a plurality of neighbor nodes, wherein each neighbor node comprises another plurality of radios, wherein the plurality of radios of the origination node are communicatively coupled to an associated radio of each neighbor node, thereby creating one or more communicatively coupled pairs of radios;
• and
• a routing engine operating to:
• receive a message from each radio of the first plurality of radios of the origination node to each of the associated radios of the plurality of radios of each of the plurality of neighbor nodes, wherein the received message comprises an advertisement that sets all routing metrics of a plurality of routing metrics to the originating node to zero,
• calculate, in response to the received messages, the routing metrics to the origination node for each of the communicatively coupled pairs of radios to transfer data between each of the plurality of neighbor nodes and the origination node, wherein each routing metric accounts for a quantity of communicatively coupled pairs of radios between the neighbor node and the origination node;
• and
• select a communication route comprising one of the communicatively coupled pairs of radios of one of the neighbor nodes and the origination node for communication with the origination node based at least in part on the calculated routing metrics.

A method of communicating a communication flow along a multi-hop communication route comprising one or more next hop nodes between a source node and a destination node within a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

• sending a message from each radio of a plurality of radios of a current node to each of one or more communicatively coupled pair of radios of each of a plurality of next hop nodes, wherein the sent message comprises an advertisement that sets all routing metrics of each of one or more communicatively coupled pairs of radios for transferring data between each of a plurality of next hop nodes and the current node to zero;
• determining, in response to the message received from the current node, the routing metrics of each of one or more communicatively coupled pairs of radios for transferring data between each of a plurality of next hop nodes and the current node wherein the determined routing metrics account for a quantity of communicatively coupled pairs of radios with the current node;
• selecting a next hop node and a communicatively coupled pair of radios between the current node and the next hop node to communicate with the current node whose determined routing metrics meet a desired criteria for transmission of the communication flow;
• transmitting the communication flow through a selected communicatively coupled pairs of radios of a selected next hop node;
• and
• repeating the determining, selecting, and transmitting steps for each current node and next hop node along the multi-hop communication route from the source node to the destination node.

A method of communicating a plurality of communication flows along a multi-hop communication route comprising one or more next hop nodes between a source node and a destination node within a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

• segregating the plurality of communication flows along the multi-hop communication route based at least in part on an application port number, wherein the segregation of the plurality of communication flows comprises distinguishing each communication flow as local traffic from a plurality of backbone network traffic that is being forwarded;
• and
• for each of the plurality of communication flows along the multi-hop communication route:
• sending a message from each radio of a plurality of radios of a current node to each of one or more communicatively coupled pair of radios of each of a plurality of next hop nodes, wherein the sent message comprises an advertisement that sets all routing metrics of each of one or more communicatively coupled pairs of radios for transferring data between each of a plurality of next hop nodes and the current node to zero;
• determining, in response to the message received from the current node, the routing metrics of each of one or more communicatively coupled pairs of radios for transferring data between each of a plurality of next hop nodes and the current node wherein the determined routing metrics account for a quantity of communicatively coupled pairs of radios with the current node;
• selecting a next hop communicatively coupled pair of radios comprising one of the plurality of radios of the next hop node and one of a current node radio of the plurality of current node radios of a current node, wherein the determined routing metrics of the selected next hop communicatively coupled pair of radios meets a desired criteria for transmission of the communication flow;
• dedicating each selected communicatively coupled pair of radios to forwarding the communication flow wherein the selected radio group comprises the selected next hop communicatively coupled pair of radios;
• and
• transmitting the communication flow through the dedicated selected communicatively coupled pair of radios along the multi-hop communication route from the source node to the destination node.