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. , device to device throughout the smart home network 202. In some implementations, the spokesman nodes in the smart home network 202, which are able to communicate using a relatively high power communication protocol, such as IEEE 802. 11, are able to switch to a relatively low power communication protocol, such as IEEE 802. 15. 4, to receive these messages, translate the messages to other communication protocols, and send the translated messages to other spokesman nodes and/or the server system 164 using, e. g. , the relatively high power communication protocol. Thus, the low powered nodes using low power communication protocols are able to send and/or receive messages across the entire smart home network 202, as well as over the Internet 162 to the server system 164.