Patent ID: 8774094

Claim:
A method of hybrid routing and forwarding for a wireless sensor network comprising the steps of: broadcasting by an initiator node of the wireless sensor network, a broadcast packet of the broadcasting containing both a quantity of user data comprising at least one of a query and an event report message, and a quantity of routing advertisement data providing control data to nodes, the user data and routing advertisement data contained in the single broadcast packet, the single broadcast packet being uniquely identifiable by a node ID of the initiator node and a sequence number generated with each message from the initiator node; forming a unicast route to the initiator node by a second node after receipt of the broadcasting, the unicast route being based on the quantity of routing advertisement data of the broadcast packet; receiving the quantity of user data of the broadcast packet by the second node at the same time as the receipt of the routing advertisement data; transmitting, by the second node, a broadcast packet comprising the quantity of user data, and a second quantity of routing advertisement data; propagating the quantity of routing advertisement by the initiator node on an as-needed basis, wherein the quantity of routing advertisement data is incorporated into a packet containing the quantity of user data whenever the quantity of user data is broadcast; and processing by the second node, the broadcast packet to eliminate a broadcast loop.