Auto-configuration of a mesh relay's TX/RX schedule
A mesh network consists of wireless nodes which are each capable of relaying packets to their intended destination. Flood routing may be used to propagate the packets from source to destination via multiple hops. This implies that each device continuously listens for signals from other nodes within the network, which increases power consumption. To reduce power consumption, a wireless node detects the number of wireless nodes nearby which are also able to relay packets and adjusts its power consumption accordingly. For instance, if a large number of relay nodes is detected, the wireless node will conserve power by adjusting its listening schedule (e.g. increasing the time between each listening period), and vice versa. Alternatively, the wireless node may save power by reducing a receive range if a large number of nodes is detected. This may also reduce loading on a network due to less duplicate packets being relayed concurrently.
