Energy efficient forwarding in ad-hoc wireless networks

A method, comprising:

• receiving, at a wireless destination node in a wireless multi-node network, a beacon message noting a presence of another node;
• broadcasting, at the wireless destination node, a routing message to at least one other node in the wireless multi-node network in response to the received beacon message;
• receiving, at the wireless destination node, an additional message comprising:
• a unique identifier for a wireless source node, and
• sequencing data indicating a sequence of the message;
• extracting distance data indicating a number of hops to reach the wireless destination node from the wireless source node in the wireless network;
• and
• updating a forwarding table, wherein the forwarding table includes identifiers for neighboring sensor nodes.

A node, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive, at a wireless destination node in a wireless multi-node network, a beacon message noting a presence of another node;
• a transmitter configured to broadcast, at the wireless destination node, a routing message to at least one other node in the wireless multi-node network in response to the received beacon message;
• wherein the node is operable such that the receiver is further configured to receive, at the wireless destination node, an additional message comprising:
• a unique identifier for a wireless source node;
• and
• sequencing data indicating a sequence of the message;
• a processing unit configured to:
• extract distance data indicating a number of hops to reach the wireless destination node from the wireless source node in the wireless network, and
• update a forwarding table, wherein the forwarding table includes identifiers for neighboring sensor nodes.

A computer program product on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

• computer code for receiving, at a wireless destination node, a beacon message noting a presence of another node;
• computer code for broadcasting, at the wireless destination node, a routing message to at least one other node in a wireless multi-node network in response to the received beacon message;
• computer code for receiving, at the wireless destination node, an additional message comprising:
• a unique identifier for a wireless source node, and
• sequencing data indicating a sequence of the message;
• computer code for extracting distance data indicating a number of hops to reach the wireless destination node from the wireless source node in the wireless multi-node network;
• and
• computer code for updating a forwarding table, wherein the forwarding table includes identifiers for neighboring sensor nodes.