Patent ID: 8565109

Claim:
A method comprising: assigning, to at least one network node in a set of network nodes, a respective polling interval based at least in part on a respective cost contribution of the at least one network node; during a timeslot selected according to the respective polling interval, (a) polling the at least one network node and (b) as a result of the polling, receiving from the at least one network node one or more of network-node data and environment data wherein the assigning further comprises assigning a first network node a first polling interval and assigning a second network node a second polling interval; after the assigning, detecting that a same first time slot has been selected for both the first network node and the second network node; responsive to the detecting, selecting one of the first network node and the second network node based on a comparison between a priority metric of the first network node and a priority metric of the second network node; and polling the selected network node during the particular time slot.