Wireless relay networks

Two network architectures for connecting fixed wireless nodes to a central concentrator-relay and star-are combined into a structured network architecture called a relay star network. A relay star network is characterized by the property that there is a unique communication path between any two nodes; that is, the graph of the network is a rooted tree. In this article we present a tutorial discussion of relay star networks using examples and an extended discussion of a protocol for wireless data collection on relay star networks. The target application for this work is data collection on networks of fixed low-cost, low-data-rate environmental monitors such as urban terminals (parking meters, pay telephones, fire alarm boxes, distress call stations, etc.) and utility meters (water, electricity, gas, steam, etc.)