Patent ID: 7035240

Claim:
A method of forming a network from a plurality of nodes and a base station, the method comprising the steps of: (a) identifying at least one node of the plurality of nodes to operate as a cluster-head including randomly selecting one of the plurality of nodes to be a cluster-head; (b) forming a plurality of clusters from the plurality of nodes, each of the clusters having at least one cluster-head; (c) transmitting data from at least one node in at least one of the plurality of clusters to the cluster-head in that cluster; (d) transmitting data from at least one cluster-head to the base station; and (e) identifying a different one of the plurality of nodes to operate as a cluster-head; wherein the step of randomly selecting one of the plurality of nodes to be a cluster-head is based on a probabilistic function of an amount of energy remaining in each of the plurality of nodes.