Patent ID: 8159938

Claim:
A communication system in a distributed wireless network, said system comprising: (a) a plurality of wireless nodes, wherein at least some of said plurality of nodes are communicatively connected, wherein each of said nodes uses repeated communication frames for said communication, wherein each of said communication frames comprises: (i) a first period which is a time division multiple access (TDMA) schedule for active communication, wherein said TDMA schedule comprises a plurality of TDMA slots; and (ii) a second period, wherein little or no activity occurs in said second period; (b) a broadcast function for allowing each of said plurality of nodes to broadcast a message, wherein one of said TDMA slots is used to broadcast said message, and wherein said message broadcasted by each of said nodes does not comprise an address of another of said nodes and includes an identifier of the TDMA slot used to broadcast the message; and (c) a listen function for allowing each of said plurality of nodes to listen for said broadcasted messages, wherein one or more of said TDMA slots is used to listen for one or more of said broadcasted messages, and wherein said listen function allows a listening node to receive one or more of said broadcasted messages; wherein a start time of said repeated communication frame for one of said nodes is determined by: (i) receiving one or more of said broadcasted messages; (ii) calculating a time shift, wherein said time shift is calculated based at least partially on said TDMA slot identifiers of each of said received messages; and (iii) determining said start time of said repeated communication frame of said receiving node based on said calculated time shift.