Redundant routing is a must-have in real-world RF environments. Conditions change dramatically over time due to a variety of factors including things like the weather, new RF systems, equipment changes in a building, and even population density. Combine this with the utter unpredictability of node placement and installer practices, and future network expansions, and one gets a clear picture of the challenges facing RF reliability. A full-mesh topology, such as a TSMP-based network, with automatic node joining and healing lets the network maintain long-term reliability and predictability in spite of these challenges.

Fully redundant routing requires both spatial diversity (try a different route) and temporal diversity (try again later). TSMP networks enable each mote to discover multiple possible neighbors to ensure spatial diversity. Temporal diversity is handled by retry and failover mechanisms.

A full-mesh network does not rely on special-purpose routers, base stations, or aggregators, and does not require nearly the wireless expertise nor installation skills of other solutions. There is no need to survey, engineer, and then ultimately overbuild point-to-point connections. As a full mesh is installed, all connected nodes form one 'giant antenna' for other joining nodes. This allows for extremely quick and robust installations. Additionally, should an installed network need to be expanded a full-mesh network can gracefully accommodate new nodes by relying on edge nodes to automatically assume routing duties.