1. A method for an access point (AP), the method comprising: intermittently broadcasting, by the AP, a beacon message to be forwarded among a plurality of node devices to solicit joining a zone of the AP; receiving, by the AP, a reply message in response to the beacon message from a first node device of the plurality of node devices; and updating, by the AP, a list of node devices in the zone based on the reply message; wherein the zone of the AP includes second node devices of the plurality of node devices, and each of the second node devices has a default route to the AP through one or more hops.