Patent ID: 8018954

Claim:
A communication system located between a first location, including a data store, and a plurality of data sensors remote from the first location, at least some of the data sensors remote from other data sensors, said system comprising: a network controller at the first location generating and embedding plural timing and control signals, the timing and control signals arranged so that data which is synchronous with the timing signals will allow for data fusion notwithstanding wide geographic dispersion among said data sensors; a passive communication medium connecting said network controller and the remote data sensors and transmitting the timing and control signals from the network controller to the remote data sensors; a plurality of network gateways, each said network gateway coupled between said passive communications medium and one or more adjacent data sensors, each network gateway adapting the timing and control signals for extracting and generating timing signals to adjacent data sensors; a plurality of the data sensors responding to the timing signals for generating data signals, each of the network gateways responding to data signals from adjacent sensors for generating data signals synchronous with the timing signals for transmission along the passive communications medium towards the network controller, wherein an aggregate data rate from the remote data sensors towards the network controller is orders of magnitude larger than a data rate from the network controller towards the remote data sensors.