Patent ID: 7876721

Claim:
A method comprising: communicating among multiple nodes in a distributed sensor network; and deriving a sleep schedule for the nodes based upon a threshold value indicative of an optimized geographic routing of communication among the nodes; wherein the deriving comprises: determining whether a given node with one or more immediate neighboring nodes, in a distributed sensor network, is part of a connected neighborhood; keeping the given node active if the number of the immediate neighboring nodes is less than the threshold value; and deactivating the given node, if the given node or one or more of the immediate neighboring nodes depend at least in part on the connected neighborhood; deactivating the given node when: at least one node in the immediate neighborhood of the given node has further neighboring nodes greater than the threshold value, the further neighboring nodes being member of the connected neighborhood; and at least two nodes in the connected neighborhood are indirectly connected to each other through connecting nodes lying within an n-hop neighborhood of the given node, the connecting nodes having rank values less than the rank value of the given node.