In one embodiment, a device in a channel hopping, communication network independently maintains a slot counter, and computes a channel identification (ID) based on a function having inputs of a unique feature of the device, ii) a current slot of the slot counter, and iii) a set of possible channel IDs. Accordingly, the device configures its radio to receive on the computed channel ID for the respective current slot. In another embodiment, the device may determine, for a neighbor device, a current neighbor slot and unique neighbor feature, and correspondingly computes a neighbor channel ID based on the function using the unique neighbor feature, the current neighbor slot, and the set of a possible channel IDs. As such, the device configures its radio to transmit on the computed neighbor channel ID for the respective current neighbor slot.