Method for autonomous establishment and utilization of an active-RF tag network

A method to autonomously establish and utilize a network of active RF tags is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of providing a plurality of active RF tags within a volume of interest, providing at least one data collection node, registering the active RF tags, populating a routing index stored in each tag's data storage device, and communicating data between the active RF tags and the data collection node according to the routing indices. The method can be implemented on a computer-readable medium.