Patent ID: 8812007

Claim:
A method for wirelessly monitoring and controlling a water distribution system at a watering site comprising: establishing a network of a plurality of wireless nodes wherein each wireless node has a wireless transceiver and a processor and wherein at least one of said plurality of wireless nodes also has an environmental sensor; communicating timing information wirelessly from a first wireless node to a second wireless node; acknowledging the receipt of said timing information through the sending of an acknowledgment signal by said second wireless node to said first wireless node; establishing a timeslot for a future communication between said first and second wireless nodes using communication between said first wireless node and said second wireless node; powering down the wireless transceivers of the first and second wireless nodes following the sending of said acknowledgment signal by said second wireless node; and powering up the wireless transceivers of the first and second wireless nodes for the wireless communication of further sensor information at said time slot; conducting water distribution at said watering site based on sensor information communicated between said first wireless node and said second wireless node; wherein said timeslot is established by: including a plurality of available wireless node timeslots in said timing information communicated from said first wireless node to said second wireless node; said second wireless node comparing said plurality of available first wireless node timeslots to a plurality of available second wireless node timeslots and selecting said timeslot from said plurality of available first wireless node timeslots; said second wireless node including said selected timeslot in said acknowledgment signal sent from said second wireless node to said first wireless node.