Patent ID: 7154866

Claim:
A method for wireless communication between a sending device and a receiving device, comprising: forming a packet at said sending device, said packet having a plurality of message control bits and a plurality of information fields, wherein at least a first message control bit indicates routing information for said packet, and at least a second message control bit indicates whether data is included in at least one of said information fields which is associated with said second message control bit; wirelessly communicating said packet from said sending device to said receiving device; receiving said packet at said receiving device; and performing a task at said receiving device based on said message control bits; wherein said forming step includes: identifying a message type for transmitting to said receiving device; setting said message control bits based on said message type; and formatting data for inclusion in said at least one of said information fields based on said message type; and wherein said setting step includes: setting a survey bit when said message type is a survey message.