Patent ID: 8797915

Claim:
A device comprising: a processor forming a first predetermined portion of a first communication node; a transceiver forming a second predetermined portion of the first communication node in communication with the processor for receiving and transmitting signals via a wireless transmission medium; a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium encoding a computer program for execution by the processor to execute a process comprising: determining with the processor whether signals received from at least another communication node of a plurality of communication nodes include a signal transmitted by a communication node acting as a central node; establishing the first communication node as operating in one of a first protocol and a second protocol in dependence upon the determination; and defaulting the first communication node to the second protocol upon detecting a failure in respect of communications with the first protocol; wherein the non-transitory tangible computer readable medium further encodes another computer program for execution by the processor to execute the first protocol, the first protocol comprising: extracting information from the received signal transmitted by another node acting as a central node and determining whether the another node has capacity to add the first communication node as a member of a group coordinated by the another node acting as a central node; transmitting a signal to the another node acting as a central node indicating that the first communication node wishes to become a member of the group coordinated by the another node acting as a central node when the extracted information indicates capacity to add the first communication node; receiving a signal from the another node acting as a central node indicating that the request for the first communication node to become a member of the group coordinated by the another node acting as a central node has been accepted and configuring upon acceptance a first aspect of the first communication node in dependence upon information contained with the acceptance signal; and executing the second protocol upon receiving at least one of a refusal to become a member of the group or no response from the another node acting as a central node.