Data collection from asynchronous transmissions in wireless mesh networks

A wireless mesh network includes a controller in wireless communication with a plurality of slave devices where each slave device is assigned a virtual routing number that defines a time slot in a TDMA communications frame. The slave devices are configured to receive, out of band and/or separately from the TDMA communications frame, asynchronous transmissions of sensor data from battery operated sensor devices. The battery operated sensor devices transmit asynchronously and do not participate in the TDMA communications frame in order to save battery power. The slave devices store data received from the sensor devices until the data is requested by the controller through an initiation message. In response, the slave devices aggregate data received directly from asynchronous communications with data received from other slave devices during an accumulation process that passes the accumulated date back to the controller through the mesh network during a TDMA acknowledgement frame.