Patent ID: 8837354

Claim:
A system comprising: a wireless leaf node configured to modify operation of an industrial process; and a plurality of wireless access points configured to transmit data to the wireless leaf node in specified time slots within a data frame and to receive an acknowledgement from the wireless leaf node in response to successful receipt of the data by the wireless leaf node, wherein a first one of the access points is configured to: transmit a first data message to the wireless leaf node during a first portion of a first time slot; and in response to determining that no acknowledgement is received to the transmission of the first data message, perform a first retransmission of the first data message to the wireless leaf node during a second portion of the first time slot; transmit a second data message to the wireless leaf node during a first portion of a second time slot; and in response to determining that no acknowledgement is received to the first retransmission, determine whether to perform a second retransmission of the first data message to the wireless leaf node after the first portion of the second time slot during a second portion of the second time slot based on whether an acknowledgement is received to the transmission of the second data message and a priority order for message retransmissions.