g. , 204 9. Some of the smart devices in the smart home environment 100 are battery powered, while others have a regular and reliable power source, such as by connecting to wiring e. g. , to 120V or 240V line voltage wires behind the walls 154 of the smart home environment. The smart devices that have a regular and reliable power source are referred to as “spokesman” nodes. These nodes are typically equipped with the capability of using a wireless protocol to facilitate bidirectional communication with a variety of other devices in the smart home environment 100, as well as with the server system 164. 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.