The group formation algorithm deals with message loss by allowing every state in the finite state machine to time out while having a minimal effect on other nodes. For ex- ample, if a master node does not hear back from enough neighbors, it will time out (shown as TO in Figure 2) and transition back into the Need Group state. Nodes that had responded to the master cannot respond to any other master until they hear back from the current one. If they never hear back, they time out and go back to the Need Group state. The algorithm adds some.