Patent ID: 8194592

Claim:
A wireless communications system comprising: a control unit which includes a wireless transceiver and control software to implement a wireless multi-hop communications protocol; and a plurality of wireless devices where each device includes software to implement the wireless communication protocol with one of, the control unit and at least one other child member of the plurality, or, at least two other members of the plurality where a selected device communicates with at least one child device and at least one parent device, wherein each child device includes software that implements the protocol with one of, two parent devices, or, one parent device and the control unit, wherein information from different child devices is transmitted to respective parent devices wherein each of the respective parent devices aggregates parent data with the information received from the different child devices, and wherein each of the respective parent devices transmits a single packet with the aggregated parent data and information from the different child devices and where at least some of the devices become active for a predetermined time interval during selected time slots to receive incoming data, and in the absence thereof, return to an inactive state.