Patent ID: 8238199

Claim:
A method for use in seismic data acquisition, comprising the steps of: disposing, in series, a plurality of seismic data acquisition modules that are operative to wirelessly communicate acquired seismic data, wherein said acquisition modules define a wireless serial data transfer path for relaying data from upstream acquisition modules to downstream acquisition modules and a data collection unit; assigning a first acquisition module in said serial data transfer path a first multiplexing signature sequence, wherein in successive transmission periods, the first acquisition module advances sequentially through a first plurality of multiplexing signatures of the first multiplexing sequence; and assigning a second acquisition module in said serial data transfer path a second multiplexing signature sequence, wherein in successive transmission periods, the second acquisition module advances sequentially through a second plurality of multiplexing signatures of the second multiplexing sequence; wherein the first acquisition module and the second acquisition module are spatially distributed with respect to said wireless serial data transfer path, and wherein said first acquisition module advances from a first multiplexing signature to a second multiplexing signature within said first multiplexing signature sequence at substantially the same time as said second acquisition modules advances from a third multiplexing signature to a fourth multiplexing signature within said second multiplexing signature sequence.