Patent ID: 8787404

Claim:
A method of communicating in a network having a plurality of nodes including a base node (BN) and a plurality of service nodes (SNs) including at least one switch node (SW) and at least one terminal node (TN), comprising: restarting an ALV_S timer at said BN for said first SN upon receiving a data/ALV_S/ACK frame from said first SN; setting a Keep Alive KA timeout (KA_TO) value for said first KA timer by transmitting an Alive ALV.TIME field in an ALV_B frame, wherein said KA_TO value is set by said BN using an implementation specific algorithm, and wherein said BN uses an ALV_B timer to track a last sent data frame or said ALV_B frame to said first SN to ensure said BN sends at least some frames to said first SN during each time interval defined by said KA_TO value.