Patent ID: 7630336

Claim:
A wireless sensor network comprising: a plurality of nodes that communicate over wireless communication links, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes receives sensor data from a sensor; wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes determines when a discrete event occurs and, when the discrete event occurs, transmits data related to the discrete event over at least one of the wireless communication links; and wherein: the discrete event is a function of the sensor data; the wireless sensor network is queried by specifying a set of discrete events of interest and, for each of the set of discrete events of interest, a producer node included in the plurality of nodes determines when that discrete events of interest occurs and, when that discrete event of interest occurs, transmits data related to that discrete event of interest; and for each of the set of discrete events of interest, the producer node for that discrete event of interest transmits the data related to that discrete event of interest to a consumer node associated with that discrete event of interest when that discrete event of interest occurs.