Selection of a parent node by a wireless communication device in a wireless relay communication network

A wireless communication device for wireless relay communication includes a network interface, a data storage, and a processor. The processor determines whether or not to continue communication with a current parent node based on a communication status with the current parent node. Upon determining not to continue communication with the current parent node, the processor determines part of the nodes in the network to be one or more candidates for a new parent node, based on hop numbers of the nodes stored in the data storage, each of which is associated with one of the nodes in the network, wherein a hop number of a node indicates a node distance between the node and a reference node, causes the network interface to be in a receivable state during time slots associated with the one or more candidates, and selects one of the candidates as the new parent node.