Patent ID: 8194636

Claim:
A method for timing synchronization for mesh networks comprising: receiving a timing information at a parent node, wherein the timing information is from a received packet, wherein the received packet is sent at a keep-alive interval by a child node using a link to the parent node, and wherein the parent node activates its receiver in a guardband, wherein the guardband has a duration of a guardband duration; determining a clock offset based at least in part on the timing information; indicating that a decision is to be made to adjust a characteristic of the link based at least in part on the clock offset, wherein the adjustment of the characteristic causes a subsequent transmission from the child node to the parent node to be less likely to be missed due to a timing mismatch between when a next packet is sent by the child node and when the parent node receiver is enabled to receive the next packet, wherein the characteristic comprises the keep alive interval or a guardband time, wherein the subsequent transmission is made according to a repeating frame that indicates a time slot and a frequency for the child node and the parent node to communicate; and transmitting from the parent node to the child node a value representative of the clock offset.