Patent ID: 11916683
Assignee: LANDIS+GYR TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 10:
11. A method for transmitting unicast messages in an unsynchronized channel hopping wireless network, the method comprising:
storing, by a node, a first channel hopping timing interval and a first channel hopping sequence for the node, wherein the node comprises a wireless transceiver and a processor, and wherein the wireless transceiver of the node is configured to receive communications based on the first channel hopping timing interval and the first channel hopping sequence;
storing, by the node, a broadcast channel hopping timing interval and a broadcast channel hopping sequence;
storing, by the node, a plurality of channel hopping timings and channel hopping sequences for each of a plurality of tracked neighbor nodes;
determining, by the node, whether a destination node for a unicast message that is pending at the node corresponds to any of the plurality of tracked neighbor nodes;
based on a determination that the destination node for the unicast message does not correspond to any of the tracked neighbor nodes, determining, by the node, (i) a next broadcast dwell interval based on the broadcast channel hopping timing interval and (ii) a next broadcast channel based on the broadcast channel hopping sequence;
based on the determination that the destination node for the unicast message does not correspond to any of the tracked neighbor nodes, determining, by the node, to send the unicast message to the destination node during the next broad cast dwell interval;
at a start of the next broadcast dwell interval, listening, by the node, for broadcast traffic; and
back off sending, by the node, the unicast message to the destination node when the node detects broadcast traffic during the next broadcast dwell interval.