Patent ID: 7649835

Claim:
A node comprising: an interface to communicatively couple the node to a first channel; wherein the first channel communicatively couples the node to a first neighbor node and a first neighbor's neighbor node in a first direction; and when the node is operating in an unsynchronized mode: determines if data received on the first channel from the first neighbor node was sourced from that first neighbor node; and if data received on the first channel from the first neighbor node was sourced from that first neighbor node: the node relays, along the first channel, for a relay period, the data received from the first neighbor node that was sourced from that first neighbor node; and after relaying the data received from the first neighbor node that was sourced from that first neighbor node and for a block period, the node blocks data received from the first neighbor while the node relays, along the first channel, data received from the first neighbor's neighbor node.