Some embodiments includes a method of forming a local area mesh network at a computing device. The method can include: receiving a connection request from a first neighbor device utilizing a Wi-Fi Direct (WFD) discovery protocol; forming a first peer-to-peer (P2P) connection with the first neighbor device utilizing WFD, wherein the computing device is set as a group owner of the first P2P connection; generating a notice of absence schedule to send to the first neighbor device indicating suspension intervals of the first P2P connection during which the computing device is suspended from being the group owner of the first P2P connection; forming a second P2P connection with a second neighbor device utilizing WFD, wherein the second neighbor device is set as a group owner of the second P2P connection, wherein the first P2P connection and the second P2P connection constitute part of a mesh communication network.