A network, comprising: a central facility; and a plurality of endpoints (110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120), selected of said plurality of endpoints being battery powered and having capability to operate as a repeater; wherein the selected endpoints are selected based at least in part on proximity to other endpoints that are out-of-range of the central facility and based at least in part on battery capacity of the selected endpoints being sufficient to repeat messages sent from the out-of-range endpoints; and wherein the selected endpoints are configured to share a repeater load and perform functions comprising: evaluating, by each of the selected endpoints, a repeater availability based on the reliability of uplink capability and the battery capacity of the respective selected endpoint, wherein the reliability of uplink capability includes a determination of having a sufficient quality of service connection from the respective selected endpoint to the out-of-range endpoints or the central facility; transmitting signals from the selected endpoints intended for the out-of-range endpoints, the signals indicating to the out-of-range endpoints availability of repeater functionality thereat sufficient to support repeating the messages from the out-of-range endpoints based on the evaluating of the repeater availability of the selected endpoints; and relaying messages from the out-of-range endpoints that require the repeater functionality to be heard at the central facility, wherein the relaying is performed by the selected endpoints in a shared manner, and wherein the shared manner distributes workload over at least two endpoints of the selected endpoints to prevent any single endpoint of the selected endpoints from performing the entire relaying required by the out-of-range endpoints. a central facility; and a plurality of endpoints (110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120), selected of said plurality of endpoints being battery powered and having capability to operate as a repeater; wherein the selected endpoints are selected based at least in part on proximity to other endpoints that are out-of-range of the central facility and based at least in part on battery capacity of the selected endpoints being sufficient to repeat messages sent from the out-of-range endpoints; and wherein the selected endpoints are configured to share a repeater load and perform functions comprising: evaluating, by each of the selected endpoints, a repeater availability based on the reliability of uplink capability and the battery capacity of the respective selected endpoint, wherein the reliability of uplink capability includes a determination of having a sufficient quality of service connection from the respective selected endpoint to the out-of-range endpoints or the central facility; transmitting signals from the selected endpoints intended for the out-of-range endpoints, the signals indicating to the out-of-range endpoints availability of repeater functionality thereat sufficient to support repeating the messages from the out-of-range endpoints based on the evaluating of the repeater availability of the selected endpoints; and relaying messages from the out-of-range endpoints that require the repeater functionality to be heard at the central facility, wherein the relaying is performed by the selected endpoints in a shared manner, and wherein the shared manner distributes workload over at least two endpoints of the selected endpoints to prevent any single endpoint of the selected endpoints from performing the entire relaying required by the out-of-range endpoints. evaluating, by each of the selected endpoints, a repeater availability based on the reliability of uplink capability and the battery capacity of the respective selected endpoint, wherein the reliability of uplink capability includes a determination of having a sufficient quality of service connection from the respective selected endpoint to the out-of-range endpoints or the central facility; transmitting signals from the selected endpoints intended for the out-of-range endpoints, the signals indicating to the out-of-range endpoints availability of repeater functionality thereat sufficient to support repeating the messages from the out-of-range endpoints based on the evaluating of the repeater availability of the selected endpoints; and relaying messages from the out-of-range endpoints that require the repeater functionality to be heard at the central facility, wherein the relaying is performed by the selected endpoints in a shared manner, and wherein the shared manner distributes workload over at least two endpoints of the selected endpoints to prevent any single endpoint of the selected endpoints from performing the entire relaying required by the out-of-range endpoints.