One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for communicating within a network. The technique includes receiving, by a first node in a mesh network at a first receive time, a first beacon from a second node in the mesh network, the first beacon including a first network time associated with the second node; determining, by the first node, a first transmission time of a first unicast message to the second node based on (a) the first receive time, (b) the first network time, and (c) a unicast interval between consecutive unicast listening times on the second node; and transmitting, by the first node, the first unicast message to the second node at the first transmission time.