Patent ID: 7355991

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: receiving by a receiving node (B), a message transmitted from a transmitting node (A) as part of a message flood; calculating a delay time for broadcasting the message, wherein the delay time is inversely proportional to a coverage area under the receiving node; determining if the message has been broadcast by another node; broadcasting the message as part of the message flood after the delay time if the message has not been broadcast by another node; and wherein the step of calculating the delay time comprises one of the following two steps: calculating a delay time inversely proportional to a first area under a neighbor coordinator (N) that the remote unit can broadcast to, excluding a second area under both a home (M) and the neighbor coordinator that the remote unit can broadcast to; or calculating a delay time inversely proportional to a first area under a coordinator (M) that the receiving node can broadcast to, excluding a second area under the coordinator that the transmitting node can broadcast to.