Patent ID: 8442092

Claim:
A method for generating unique hopping sequences for nodes in a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) network, comprising: selecting a total number of hopping sequence channels; creating a channel table for the network having the total number of hopping sequence channels; generating, for a given node, a sequence start and a sequence seed based on a node identifier; and receiving an epoch tick from the given node that establishes where the given node is in its hopping sequence, wherein the epoch tick is received during a discovery period when nodes in the network exchange their respective timing information with neighbor nodes, or when the given node periodically broadcasts its timing information; performing a slot-to-channel conversion for each of a plurality of time slots to identify a channel in the hopping sequence of the given node by generating a channel index into the channel table based on the sequence start and the sequence seed for the given node and a current slot of the given node determined using the epoch tick, and retrieving the channel from the channel table that corresponds to the channel index.