Patent ID: 11943167
Assignee: nan
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  Y | IPC H

Claim 10:
11. A method of collecting data from communication devices in a wireless mesh network with packet-based message transmission, the communication devices being arranged for conflict-free routing using time division multiplexing and a virtual routing number, the virtual routing number for each communication device being stored thereon and expressing a distance from a control communication device, wherein the mesh network includes at least one control communication device, a plurality of routing communication devices, and a plurality of sensor devices, the method comprising:
each of the plurality of routing communication devices receiving and storing sensor data asynchronously sent from the sensor devices;
each of the plurality of routing communication devices, upon receiving an initiation message from the control communication device, selecting and setting one or more bits from the stored sensor data; and
at least one of the plurality of routing communications devices:
merging the one or more bits with acknowledgement collection messages received from another of the plurality of routing communication devices with a higher virtual routing number during an acknowledgement frame, the acknowledgement frame being time synchronized with an initiation frame, and
sending the one or more bits merged with the acknowledgement collection messages within a corresponding time slot of the acknowledgement frame.