The determination and advertisement of a node's rank in an RF mesh network reflects sustained network changes. A node's advertised rank may be based on the node's induced rank and a previous rank candidate. Induced rank is the rank of the node at a particular point in time. Rank candidate is based on a running average of the node's past rank. The advertised rank may be based on a weighted sum of the induced rank and a previous rank candidate. Induced rank may consider a Link Quality Indicator (LQI), which may be based on a running average LQI.