Systems and methods for wirelessly communicating multidrop packets via wireless networks

A method for communicating in a multidrop system, comprising the steps of:

• storing in memory data for mapping multidrop addresses of the multidrop system to network addresses of a wireless network;
• receiving, from a first communication device of the multidrop system, a plurality of multidrop packets, including at least a first multidrop packet and a second multidrop packet, for each of a plurality of communication devices of the multidrop system, including at least a second communication device and a third communication device, each of the multidrop packets having a multidrop address identifying a respective one of the plurality of communication devices;
• mapping, based on the data, a multidrop address of the first multidrop packet to a network address identifying a node of the wireless network, wherein the multidrop address of the first multidrop packet identifies the second communication device, and wherein the node is coupled to the second communication device;
• wirelessly transmitting a unicast message through the wireless network to the node based on the first multidrop packet;
• and
• inserting the network address of the node in the unicast message.

A method for retrofitting a multidrop system with a wireless network, the multidrop system having a first communication device, a second communication device, and a third communication device, the first communication device configured to transmit multidrop addresses to the second and third communication devices via a data connection, the method comprising the steps of:

• coupling a first node of the wireless network to the first communication device;
• coupling a second node of the wireless network to the second communication device;
• coupling a third node of the wireless network to the third communication device;
• mapping a multidrop address identifying the second communication device to a network address identifying the second node;
• mapping a multidrop address identifying the third communication device to a network address identifying the third node;
• transmitting multidrop packets from the first communication device to the first node;
• defining unicast messages in response to the transmitting step and based on the mapping steps;
• inserting, into the unicast messages, the multidrop packets transmitted in the transmitting step;
• and
• wirelessly transmitting the unicast messages to the second and third nodes.