Patent ID: 7203497

Claim:
A system for deployment within a three-dimensional structure having multiple levels, the system comprising: a plurality of wireless routers of a wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping and peer-to-peer communication network, the plurality of wireless routers comprising: a plurality of vertical routers deployed for vertical communication among at least one set of vertical routers within the three-dimensional structure, and a plurality of horizontal routers deployed for horizontal communication among at least one set of horizontal routers within the three-dimensional structure; a plurality of mobile wireless terminals of the wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping and peer-to-peer communication network; a controller; at least one access point, communicatively coupled to the wireless routers and mobile wireless terminals for providing communication access to the controller; each of the mobile wireless terminals comprising: a receiving means, for receiving signals with any of the routers within its broadcast range, a location calculation means, for determining its respective location in the structure based on the received signals, and a transmitting means for providing location data to the controller via at least one said wireless router and said at least one access point; and the controller comprising: means to access a database including structure layout data pertaining to the structure, and information generation means for generating information representing the respective locations of the mobile wireless terminals in the structure based on the received location data and structure layout data.