Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media are disclosed for improving, in some examples, backhaul of sensor and other data to a real time location system (RTLS) network. In the context of a method for communication by a tag, the method includes receiving, at the tag, sensor data from at least one sensor, generating, using a processor of the tag, a tag blink data packet, the tag blink data packet including a tag identifier and at least a portion of the received sensor data, and transmitting the tag blink data packet.