The hallmark of SmartMesh networks is that they use a "triple-play" of wireless mesh technologies—time diversity, frequency diversity, and physical diversity—to assure reliability, resiliency, scalability, power source flexibility, and ease-of-use. At the core of Dust Networks SmartMesh technology is an intelligent mesh network with advanced algorithms and power saving technologies that enable powerful features not available from other WSN providers including:

• Ultra low power consumption
• Deterministic power management and optimization
• Auto-forming mesh technology for a self-healing and self-sustaining network
• Dynamic bandwidth support, load balancing and optimization
• Network management and configuration
• Zero collision low power packet exchange
• Scalability to large, dense, deep networks

SmartMesh Network Intelligence

A SmartMesh network consists of a network manager that monitors and manages network performance and relays data to the host application, and network nodes, called "motes", that relay data to and from each other and the manager.


A typical mesh network with motes and a manager communicating data to a host application.

The SmartMesh network architecture is based on Dust Networks’ pioneering work on Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol (TSMP). TSMP is a full networking stack that is compatible with the IEEE 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 2006 radio standard.  TSMP is a foundational building block of the IEC 62591 (WirelessHART) international wireless standard as well as the ISA100.11a standard from the International Society of Automation.

The TSMP includes a Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) media access layer (MAC). TSCH works by dividing time into ‘slots’, and providing a mechanism to map timeslots to channels with a pre-assigned hopping sequence.

The built-in SmartMesh intelligence utilizes TSMP and TSCH to ensure:

• Motes know precisely when to talk, listen, or sleep
• Packet exchanges are synchronized
• No packets collide on the network
• Every packet is scheduled and synchronized for energy efficiency with no extra preamble (Tx side) or guard interval time (Rx side)

Network synchronization also enables pair-wise channel hopping – also known as frequency diversity - that provides important benefits throughout the network:

• Multiple transmissions can occur simultaneously, increasing network bandwidth
• Automatically changes channels to avoid inevitable RF interference
• Allows networks to be dense and scale without creating debilitating RF interferences

Path Diversity

In a SmartMesh network, every mote is a router capable of communicating with any other mote within its range. The intelligent network dynamically identifies mesh hop paths based on constant surveillance of the network and the RF environment.

• Creates redundant routes through the mesh
• Maintains multiple paths for each mote
• Detects and reroutes around broken paths immediately