Patent ID: 7742435

Claim:
A method of communicating for a mesh network comprising: assigning a battery-powered node to communicate with a sending powered backbone node; assigning the sending powered backbone node to either a first group or a second group, wherein in the event that the sending powered backbone node is assigned to the first group, the sending powered backbone node sends a packet to a first node that is assigned to the second group and that is closer to a gateway node, wherein the first node then sends the packet to a second node that is assigned to the first group and that is closer to the gateway node than the first node; and wherein in the event that the sending powered backbone node is assigned to the second group, then the sending powered backbone node sends a packet to a third node that is assigned to the first group and that is closer to a gateway node, wherein the third node then sends the packet to a fourth node that is assigned to the first group and that is closer to the gateway node than the third node.