Patent ID: 8873432

Claim:
A method of operation for a network node capable of operating as one of a plurality of nodes in a binary tree topology network, the network node having one uptree channel, and a first and second downtree channels, the network node capable of being docked on one of the channels, the method comprising the steps of: sending a standard connection request to a parent node, the parent node being one of the plurality of nodes in the binary tree topology network, and receiving an acknowledgement of the request from the parent node, thereby permitting the network node and the parent node to be docked on the uptree channel; receiving a standard connection request from a first child node, and acknowledging that request, thereby permitting the first child node to be docked with the network node on the first downtree channel; receiving a standard connection request from a second child node, and acknowledging that request, thereby permitting the second child node to be docked with the network node on the second downtree channel; maintaining a network model comprising an address for a grandparent node of the network node, and for any node docked with the network node, said network model comprising a model of said binary tree topology network; receiving a standard connection request from a third node, and rejecting that request, and determining an address of a node that is descendent from the network node, and sending to the third node the address of the descendent node.