A method for operating a wireless network including a plurality of nodes, the method including: each node generating a set of paths to a head node; initiating an adaptive failure recovery method in the event of a source node sending a message data packet upstream and a discovery node encountering a failed node, wherein the discovery node is a node on a path taken by the message data packet from the source node to a destination node, the adaptive recovery failure method including: collecting, at the discovery node, relevant data, the relevant data comprising: a hop-distance between the failed node and the source node; a count of estimated extra hops required to deliver the data packet using a hop-distance recovery method; a count of estimated extra hops required to deliver the data packet using a multipath recovery method; and a latency time for the hop-distance recovery method.