System and method to provide differentiated routing in multi-hop multi-radio wireless networks

1. A method of differentiated routing in a multi-hop multi-radio wireless network, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of communication links, identifying a link type of the communication link as one of a restricted link and an ANY link;

broadcasting a route request from a source node, wherein the route request includes a category of traffic, wherein the route request is broadcast on the restricted links and the ANY links when the category of traffic comprises a particular category of traffic, and further wherein the route request is broadcast only on the ANY links when the category of traffic is not the particular category of traffic.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the particular category of traffic comprises public safety traffic.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the category of traffic is included in a tag within the route request.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the route request further comprises a source address and a destination address, the method further comprising at each node receiving the route request:

identifying the category of traffic using the source address and the destination address.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

forwarding a route reply along a route from a node to the source node, wherein the route reply includes the category of traffic from the route request, wherein the forwarding of the route reply comprises at each of a plurality of nodes along the route:

selecting a best available route toward the source node by:

calculating a combined route metric for each of a plurality of routes between the node and the source node, wherein the combined route metric calculation includes a scaling factor for increasing a route metric of each of the restricted links; and

selecting the route with the lowest combined route metric.