In some implementations, one or more “spokesman” nodes operate as a smart home controller. On the other hand, the devices that are battery powered are the “low power” nodes. These nodes tend to be smaller than spokesman nodes and typically only communicate using wireless protocols that require very little power, such as Zigbee, ZWave, 6LoWPAN, Thread, Bluetooth, etc. As described, in some implementations, the smart devices serve as low power and spokesman nodes to create a mesh network in the smart home environment 100. In some implementations, individual low power nodes in the smart home environment regularly send out messages regarding what they are sensing, and the other low powered nodes in the smart home environment—in addition to sending out their own messages—forward the messages, thereby causing the messages to travel from node to node i. e.