Updating node presence based on communication pathway

A method of maintaining presence information associated with a wireless data communication device of a data communications network, comprising the steps of:

• (a) communicating a message from a first node of the data communications network to a gateway device along a pathway, the pathway including the wireless data communication device as an intermediary node of the pathway;
• (b) including with the message the pathway by which the message is communicated in the wireless data communication device;
• (c) storing, in a computer readable medium at the gateway device, information representing the pathway;
• (d) updating, at the gateway device, presence information of the wireless data communication device;
• (e) communicating an acknowledgment of the message to the first node along the reverse pathway;
• and
• (f) upon communicating the acknowledgement of the message by the wireless data communication device in said step (e), resetting a timer used by the wireless data communication device to trigger the sending of a presence indication of the wireless data communication device to the gateway device.

A method of indicating presence by a wireless data communication device that forms a node in a data communications network, comprising the steps of:

• (a) receiving, at the wireless data communication device, a message originating at a first node and addressed to a gateway device;
• (b) storing, in a computer readable medium of the wireless data communication device, information associated with the message;
• (c) communicating, by the wireless data communication device, for delivery to gateway device, the message to another node of the data communications network;
• (d) receiving, at the wireless data communication device, an acknowledgment of the message by the gateway device;
• (e) resetting a timer at the wireless data communication device;
• and
• (f) communicating, by the wireless data communication device, for delivery to the first node, the acknowledgment of the message by the gateway device;
• (g) wherein the wireless data communication device is configured to communicate a message to the gateway device indicating the presence of the wireless data communication device as a node in the data communications network at predetermined intervals based on the timer.