Communications system and method

A method for communications, the method comprising:

• (A) transmitting a signal from one node to another node along a substantially unidirectional point-to-point wireless transmission link between said nodes;
• (B) receiving said signal at said other node;
• (C) determining in said other node if the signal received by said other node includes information for a further node and transmitting a signal including said information from said other node to a further node along a substantially unidirectional point-to-point wireless transmission link between said nodes if said signal includes information for a further node;
• and,
• (D) repeating (A) to (C) until said signal reaches its destination node, wherein for each node that has plural links, each link to another node is associated with a distinct time slot, the nodes being linked so as to form transmission path loops thereby to provide plural choices of path for the transmission of a signal between at least some of the nodes, each loop consisting of an even number of links.

A communications system, the system comprising:

• a plurality of nodes,
• each node being constructed and arranged to receive a wirelessly transmitted signal and to transmit wirelessly a signal,
• each node further being constructed and arranged to determine if a wireless signal received by said node includes information for another node and to cause a signal including said information to be wirelessly transmitted to another node if said received signal includes information for another node,
• each node having a substantially unidirectional point-to-point wireless transmission link with at least one other node such that each node can transmit a signal to at least one other node, at least some of the nodes having plural substantially unidirectional point-to-point wireless transmission links, each link between respective pairs of nodes being associated with a distinct time slot, the nodes being linked so as to form transmission path loops thereby to provide plural choices of path for the transmission of a signal between at least some of the nodes, each loop consisting of an even number of links.