Techniques for routing in communications networks include determining a state of a destination node in a current routing table stored at a first node. A value for a reference cost to the destination node is determined based on a minimum cost to the destination in the current routing table. Based on the state, a request message is formed including a reference distance field to prevent loops, an originating node field, a destination field, and a previous hop field. The request message is sent to a different second node within range. A record that indicates the data in the request message is stored in a pending request table. A reply message is received in response to sending the request message. In response to receiving the reply message, the record in the pending request table is removed, and the current routing table is updated based on the reply message.