Patent ID: 8014285

Claim:
A method for relaying received data by a relay node in a sensor network that includes a sink node, a source node for collecting and transmitting data requested by the sink node, and the relay node for relaying the data transmitted from the source node to the sink node, the method comprising: determining whether the source node that transmits the data is a previously identified source node; and storing the data in a buffer and forwarding the data to a neighbor node when the source node transmitting the data is the previously identified source node, wherein the data stored in the buffer is retransmitted after an acknowledgement (ACK) message for the data has not been received within a time period, wherein if a Keep Alive message is not received from the neighbor node, a sensor node transmits an Update message, and the data is retransmitted to the sensor node, and wherein the Update message is transmitted by the sensor node if the sensor node intends to act as a dissemination node with the relay node.