**4.2. Mesh network (Wilson, 2005)**

A mesh network allows transmitting data to one node to other node in the network that is within its radio transmission range. This allows for what is known as multi-hop communications, that is, if a node wants to send a message to another node that is out of radio communications range, it can use an intermediate node to forward the message to the desired node. This network topology has the advantage of redundancy and scalability. If an individual node fails, a remote node still can communicate to any other node in its range, which in turn, can forward the message to the desired location. In addition, the range of the network is not necessarily limited by the range in between single nodes; it can simply be extended by adding more nodes to the system. The disadvantage of this type of network is in power consumption for the nodes that implement the multi-hop communications are generally higher than for the nodes that don't have this capability, often limiting the battery life. Additionally, as the number of communication hops to a destination increases, the time to deliver the message also increases, especially if low power operation of the nodes is a requirement.

**Figure 3.** A Mesh network topology
