Patent ID: 7979096

Claim:
An apparatus with a non-transitory device-readable medium encoded with instructions, comprising: instructions capable of being used to cause storage of first data comprising one or more identifiers associated with one or more children nodes affiliated with a parent node in a network; instructions capable of being used to cause storage of second data comprising a first time schedule for communication of one or more first messages from the parent node to at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes and a second time schedule for communication of one or more second messages to the parent node from at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes; instructions capable of being used to cause storage of third data comprising an identifier associated with the parent node; instructions capable of being used to cause message communication, the message communication capable of being caused using the first data, the third data, and the second data comprising the first time schedule for communication of one or more first messages from the parent node to at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes and the second time schedule for communication of one or more second messages to the parent node from at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes, wherein the apparatus is configured such that a manner of the message communication is caused for power saving purposes by allowing at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes to sleep, utilizing at least one of the first data or the second data; instructions capable of being used to cause communication of a scheduling message including at least one of the first data or the second data between the parent node and at least one of the one or more affiliated children nodes; and instructions capable of being used to cause a plurality of child/parent time slots associated with different ones of the affiliated children nodes to be temporally grouped together, wherein the apparatus is configured to cause the plurality of child/parent time slots associated with the different ones of the affiliated children nodes to be temporally adjacent.