Patent ID: 8027272

Claim:
A method for maintaining data consistency among a plurality of portable telecommunications system nodes in a network that includes at least a local network node and a remote network node, comprising: maintaining, at the local network node, a persistent record for storing a plurality of data groups, wherein each said data group is associated with one of the portable telecommunications system nodes and comprises corresponding data including node identifying data, system data and at least one sequence value indicating a version of the system data; periodically sending, from the local network node to each remote node identified in the persistent record, a presence message containing the corresponding identification data and at least one sequence value stored in the data group associated with the local network node; receiving, at the local network node, an incoming presence message sent by the remote network node, said incoming presence message containing data identifying the remote network node and at least one sequence value indicating a version of system data stored at the remote network node; determining whether one of the data groups stored in the persistent record is associated with the remote network node identified in the received presence message, and if so: requesting system data from the remote network node if the stored sequence value is different from the received sequence value; and synchronizing system data in the data group associated with the remote network node after receiving a response to said request.