Patent ID: 8279778

Claim:
A wireless mesh network comprising: a central node; and a plurality of bidirectional nodes in bidirectional wireless communication with the central node, each bidirectional node having a respective wireless communication path to the central node that is either a direct path or an indirect path through one or more intermediate bidirectional nodes serving as repeater nodes, each bidirectional node being characterized by a number of intermediate bidirectional nodes forming a respective wireless communication path to the central node, wherein the central node isolates a first data communication originating from a first bidirectional node characterized by a first number of intermediate bidirectional nodes from second data communications originating from respective second bidirectional nodes characterized by respective second numbers of intermediate bidirectional nodes that are within a defined threshold of the first number of bidirectional nodes, wherein the central node isolates the first data communication from the second data communications by delaying initiation of the second data communications.