Patent ID: 7546086

Claim:
A method of communicating a message from a first short-range transceiver device to one or more other short-range transceiver devices, the method comprising: determining a set of identifiers of one or more other short-range transceiver devices known by the first short-range transceiver device to be within direct communication range of the first short-range transceiver device; creating an outbound served nodes list that includes identifiers of other short-range transceiver devices known either to already have encountered the message or to be members of the set of identifiers; incorporating the message and the outbound served nodes list into an outbound data structure; for each short-range transceiver having an identifier that is a member of the set of identifiers, performing: initiating a previously nonexisting communication link; transmitting the outbound data structure to the short-range transceiver having the identifier that is a member of the set of identifiers; and in response to a completed delivery of the outbound data structure, terminating the communication link; the first short-range transceiver device receiving an inbound data structure from a second short-range transceiver device, wherein the inbound data structure includes the message, and wherein: the inbound data structure includes an inbound served nodes list; and determining the set of identifiers comprises: determining only those device identifiers that are included in a neighbor list but not also included in the inbound served nodes list, wherein the neighbor list includes identifiers of all other short-range transceiver devices known by the first short-range transceiver device to be within direct communication range of the first short-range transceiver device.