Patent ID: 6870816

Claim:
In a self-organizing network including a plurality of kindred nodes and at least one hub node with a hub transmission frequency different than kindred transmission frequencies employed between kindred nodes, a method of communicating a data packet from a source node to a destination node remote from the source node comprising the steps of: transmitting a test packet from the source node to at least some of the plurality of kindred nodes including the destination node; determining a number of hops required to send the test packet from the source node to the destination node; changing the transmission power of the source node to adjust the number of hops required to send the test packet from the source node to the destination node to an optimum number, including transmitting directly to 2% to 5% of the kindred nodes in the self-organizing network; and transmitting the data packet from the source node to the destination node via the optimum number of hops including changing the transmission frequency from a kindred transmission frequency to a hub transmission frequency.