A wireless utility network contains a plurality of utility nodes that communicate within a wireless utility network. A gateway to the wireless utility network communicates with the utility nodes in the wireless utility network, and connects the wireless utility network to at least one other network. A packet is transmitted from one utility node to another utility node according to a route included in the transmitted packet. The route included in the transmitted packet is updated with received network information to determine an updated path cost of the included route and compared to alternate routes to select a preferred route based upon path cost. The selected preferred route is included in the packet and the packet is transmitted to another node according to the selected preferred route.