Patent ID: 8494534

Claim:
In a wireless communications network comprising a multiplicity of nodes and configured to transmit a data stream along a route from a source node in the network to a destination node in the network according to a routing protocol, a method of managing real-time data traffic, the method comprising the steps of: receiving at an intermediate node in the route a data packet from the data stream and a request to transmit the data packet to a next node in the route; determining whether the next node is operating in a receiving mode; incorporating the data packet into a waveform containing a pattern uniquely associated with a node; if the next node is operating in the receiving mode, transmitting the data packet to the next node; if the next node is not operating in the receiving mode, forwarding the data packet to any other node in the multiplicity of nodes that is both in the receiving mode and nearer to the destination node than the intermediate node.