Patent ID: 8356431

Claim:
A method of scheduling communications in a multi-node wireless mesh network including a first network device and a second network device, the method comprising: defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration; defining, by a centralized network manager, a first superframe including a first number of the communication timeslots including respective transmit segments; defining, by the centralized network manager, a second superframe including a second number of the communication timeslots including respective transmit segments; aligning the first superframe with the second superframe, so that one of the timeslots of the first superframe begins simultaneously with one of the timeslots of the second superframe; and associating, by the centralized network manager, the first and the second superframes with a network schedule for the multi-node wireless mesh network, the multi-node wireless mesh network operating in conjunction with a process plant, wherein: at least one of the first network device or the second network device performs a physical control function included in a control loop corresponding to a process being controlled by the process plant, the first network device and the second network device each transmit data according to the network schedule, and the data transmitted by the at least one of the first network device or the second network device is used to control the process.