Patent ID: 8067945

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring a material medium adapted to transmit electromagnetic (EM) energy, the monitoring using at least one sensor located in proximity to the medium, the at least one sensor configured to wirelessly transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal; transmitting wirelessly an EM wave signal comprising data originating from the at least one sensor; self-organizing the at least one sensor and a second sensor into a store-and-forward multi-hop wireless mesh network based on a hierarchical relationship between the at least one sensor and the second sensor, the second sensor being located in proximity to the medium and configured to transmit an RF signal; determining whether a roaming unit adapted to receive an RF signal is within RF communication range of one or more of the at least one sensors within the wireless mesh network, where the one or more of the at least one sensors is configured to transmit a radio frequency signal; and transmitting data, from the one or more of the at least one sensors to the roaming unit.