Abstract: System and method for increasing throughput and reducing the transmission delay in a hybrid mesh network. The hybrid mesh network including a plurality of physical mediums and a plurality of nodes linked over the plurality of physical mediums to form at least one route including a retransmitting node, linked over one physical medium with a preceding node and over other physical medium with a following node. The network is configured such that there is no link on anyone of the physical mediums between the preceding node and the following node, and each two nodes of the route with a link on one of the physical mediums do not have any links on the same physical medium with any other of nodes in the route. This enables the retransmitting node to start retransmitting a message received from the preceding node to the following node before completing receiving the message.

Abstract: A communication network comprises a plurality of physical media. The physical media may be sensitive to disturbances that are different from one physical medium to another, such that a failure in one physical medium may not effect communication in other physical medium of the communication network. The nodes of the communication network comprise a plurality of physical layers units and MAC units pairs, each pair connected to a different physical medium. The transfer of massages among the network nodes on the plurality of different physical media is done in a transparent way by upper layers of communication unit of the network nodes.