Patent ID: 6842430

Claim:
A method for configuring a wireless network comprised of a control node and a multiplicity of individual nodes, comprising the steps of: logically organizing the network into a plurality of bands Bi, wherein each of the bands Bi includes a plurality of the individual nodes and is located a number i of hops away from the control node, where i=0 through N, and N≧1; assigning a logical address to each of the individual nodes, and storing the assigned logical addresses in the respective individual nodes; and, wherein the assigned logical address for each individual node includes a first address portion which indicates the band Bi in which that individual node is located, and a second address portion that identifies that node relative to all other individual nodes located in the same band; wherein the network comprises a packet-hopping wireless network in which data is communicated by transferring data packets from node-to-node: wherein each of the individual nodes is programmed to perform the step of comparing its own logical address to a routing logical address contained in each packet which it receives, and to either discard, re-transmit, or process the packet based upon the results of the comparison; wherein the routing logical address contained in a received packet contains the full routing information required to route the packet from a sending node to a destination node along a communication path prescribed by the routing logical address; and, wherein each received packet includes: a direction bit which indicates the direction which the received packet must travel to reach the destination node; a first set of bits which includes a hops value which indicates a number N of hops required to transfer the received packet from the sending node to the destination node, and a number of hops count; a second set of bits which includes the routing logical address; and, a third set of bits which includes processing instructions for the destination node.