Systems and methods for computing and/or utilizing mutual information based link metrics for a link in a wireless mesh network are disclosed. In one embodiment, one or more mutual information values are computed for a link between a transmitter of a first network node and a receiver of a second network node in a wireless mesh network. Each of the one or more mutual information values is computed for a different hypothesized transmission mode for the link. One or more link metrics for the link are computed as a function of the mutual information values, where each link metric is computed based on a different one of the one or more mutual information values. In this manner, a link metric is computed for each of the one or more hypothesized transmission modes for the link. At least one of the link metrics are then provided to a routing update module.