Patent ID: 8085805

Claim:
A method for improving communications range between a plurality of nodes, said method comprising the steps of: scanning receiving channels available to a plurality of nodes; selecting a receiving channel having a lowest noise or interference level for each one of the plurality of nodes; storing each of the selected receiving channels in respective ones of the plurality of nodes; a) switching to the receiving channel of a destination node; b) including the receiving channel of an origination node in the unicast message to be sent to the destination node; c) sending the unicast message to the destination node; d) returning to the receiving channel of the origination node; e) determining if a response is received from the destination node; if the response is received then the unicast message is finished; if the response is not received within a certain time then repeating steps a) through e) until the response is received within the certain time; and if steps a) through e) are repeated more than a certain number of times then notifying an application of a failure in sending the unicast message; determining if the unicast message is being received by the destination node; determining whether sending the response is required, wherein if not required, then processing the received unicast message; and if required, then switching to the receiving channel of the origination node and sending the response to the origination node; switching back to the receiving channel of the destination node; and processing the received unicast message.