Patent ID: 7542437

Claim:
A communications network comprising: a first node that comprises at least one transceiver and is configured to: observe one or more conditions in at least one of the communications network or the first node, select a sleep mode of a plurality of sleep modes based on the observed one or more conditions, each sleep mode of the plurality of sleep modes being associated with a different powering down procedure and a sleep duration; power down the at least one transceiver for the sleep duration and according to the powering down procedure associated with the selected sleep mode; and where the plurality of sleep modes includes at least four sleep modes, where in response to selecting a first sleep mode of the at least four sleep modes, the first node, when powering down, is configured to: set a sleep timer to a first period of time, buffer outgoing packets, and power down the at least one transceiver for the first period of time, and where in response to selecting a second sleep mode of the at least four sleep modes, the first node, when powering down, is configured to: transmit a link-level broadcast to at least one neighboring node, set the sleep timer to a second period of time, the second period of time being longer than the first period of time, buffer outgoing packets, and power down the at least one transceiver for the second period of time; and a plurality of neighboring nodes.