Patent ID: 8054819

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a plurality of mobile nodes comprising an N number of nodes and forming a mobile ad-hoc network; a plurality of wireless communications links connecting the mobile nodes together; each mobile node comprising a communications device for transmitting and routing data packets wirelessly to other mobile nodes via the wireless communications links in accordance with a time division multiple access (TDMA) data transmission protocol using a TDMA epoch that is divided into a beacon interval, digital voice interval and digital data interval, wherein mobile nodes are operative for monitoring channel conditions using the beacon, digital voice and digital data intervals and providing from each mobile node a network connectivity performance as valid receptions occur within mobile nodes, wherein a mobile node is operative for setting a data rate for the other mobile nodes comprising an N−1 number of nodes using monitored channel conditions for the beacon, digital voice and digital data intervals, wherein a mobile node is operative for determining the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), received signal strength indication (RSSI) and packet error rate (PER) for N−1 mobile nodes based on valid beacon, digital voice and digital data interval receptions, and further comprising a database containing TDMA waveform selections, wherein a mobile node is operative for selecting a TDMA waveform from the database based on the SNR, RSSI and a SNR variance.