Disclosed is a Neighbor Location Discovery Protocol (NLDP) that determines
the relative locations of the nodes in a mesh network. In one embodiment,
NLDP can be implemented for an ad-hoc wireless network where the nodes
are equipped with directional antennas and are not able to use GPS. While
NLDP relies on nodes having at least two RF transceivers, it offers
significant advantages over previously proposed protocols that employ
only one RF transceiver. In NLDP antenna hardware is simple, easy to
implement, and readily available. Further, NLDP exploits the host node's
ability to operate simultaneously over non-overlapping channels to
quickly converge on the neighbor's location. NLDP is limited by the range
of the control channel, which operates in a omni-directional fashion.
However, by choosing a low frequency band, high power, and low data rate,
the range of the control channel can be increased to match the range on
the data channel.