Worker safety system

A method of operating a wireless mesh network comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of nodes wherein each node is operable to perform as a leader node or a follower node, wherein only one node performs to identify itself as the leader node with respect to the other nodes within communication range and one or more other nodes operate as follower nodes;
• wherein the leader node transmits a sync message to the follower nodes indicating a beginning of a network interval, wherein the leader node and the follower nodes transmit information during a transmission period and do not transmit information during a sleep period of the network interval, and wherein during a predetermined time of the transmission period of the network interval, follower nodes that received the sync message transmit a message advertising one or more properties of the leader node
• transmitting data, using a communications facility, from at least one of the plurality of nodes to a remote computer configured to monitor for a hazardous condition reported by any of the plurality of nodes;
• and
• receiving, by the communications facility, an instruction from the remote computer to be propagated during a portion of the transmission period of the wireless mesh network.

A wireless mesh network for connecting a plurality of network nodes comprising:

• a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes are adapted to communicate with one another to determine a single leader node of the plurality of nodes within communication range and a plurality of follower nodes, wherein the single leader node transmits a sync message to the plurality of follower nodes indicating a beginning of a network interval, wherein the plurality of follower nodes transmit information during a transmission period and do not transmit information during a sleep period of the network interval, and wherein during a predetermined time of the transmission period of the network interval each of the plurality of follower nodes that received the sync message transmit a message advertising one or more properties of the single leader node;
• and wherein during the transmission period, the single leader nodes listens for information advertising one or more properties of another leader node leader node, wherein when the single leader node receives information advertising one or more properties of another leader node, the single leader node ceases performing as a leader node and is adapted to begin a sequence to join the other leader node as a follower node
• a communications facility configured to:
• transmit data from at least one of the plurality of nodes to a remote computer configured to monitor for a hazardous condition reported by any of the plurality of nodes;
• the communications facility further configured to receive an instruction from the remote computer to be propagated during a portion of the transmission period of the wireless mesh network.