Node-enabled generation of a shipping label using elements of a wireless node network

1. A system for generating a shipping label for an item to be shipped using a wireless node network, the item to be shipped being associated with a shipping customer that desires to ship the item, and the shipping customer being associated with a node within the wireless node network, comprising:

a server that is separate from the node associated with the shipping customer;

a master node associated with a shipping facility, the master node being operative to communicate with the server;

a printer in operative communication with at least the master node associated with the shipping facility, the printer being responsive to instructions from the master node associated with the shipping facility; and

wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is programmatically operative to

receive shipping information from the server, the shipping information being related to the node associated with the shipping customer that desires to ship the item,

after receiving the shipping information from the server, initially detect a signal from the node associated with the shipping customer desiring to ship the item as the node associated with the shipping customer approaches the shipping facility,

associate the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer by generating first association data on the master node associated with the shipping facility, the first association data reflecting a logical pairing of the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer, and

instruct the printer to generate the shipping label for the item to be shipped when the master node associated with the shipping facility determines the node associated with the shipping customer is within a predetermined range of a location within the shipping facility by instructing the node associated with the shipping customer to alter an RF power characteristic as part of locating the node associated with the shipping customer, wherein the RF power characteristic of the node associated with the shipping customer is an RF transmission power level.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the node associated with the shipping customer is one from a group consisting of an ID node, a first master node, a node package, a first user access device operating as an ID node, a second user access device operating as a master node, and a second master node operating in a temporary ID node mode.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the node associated with the shipping customer is the second master node operating in the temporary ID node mode; and

wherein the second master node transitions from being operative to communicate with the master node associated with the shipping facility over a longer range communication path to operate in the temporary ID node mode when the second master node can receive a signal from the master node associated with the shipping facility over a short range communication path.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to instruct the printer to generate one or more additional shipping labels when the master node associated with the shipping facility determines the node associated with the shipping customer is within a predetermined range of a location within the shipping facility.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the location is one from a group consisting of a drop off location for the item to be shipped, a generation location for the shipping label, and a pickup location for the shipping label.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the shipping label comprises a tracking number associated with the shipping information, an address associated with the shipping information, information about a user shipping the item, and a machine readable reference to attach to the item to be shipped.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to associate by being operative to establish a passive association between the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer without requiring a secure connection between the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is further operative to associate by being operative to establish an active association between the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer, the active association reflecting a secure connection between the master node associated with the shipping facility and the node associated with the shipping customer.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to update the server when the master node associated with the shipping facility is no longer associated with the node associated with the shipping customer.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to update the server with location metric information related to analytics on movement of the node associated with the shipping customer within the shipping facility, wherein the analytics on movement of the node associated with the shipping customer provide the server with time-based information that represents how long the node associated with the shipping customer stays in a particular location within the shipping facility.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to:

determine if the shipping customer is a priority customer based upon the shipping information; and

generate a notification for shipping facility personnel by the master node associated with the shipping facility prior to generating the shipping label, the notification indicating that the shipping customer is the priority customer.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to provide a message to a user access device operated by shipping facility personnel, the message causing the user access device to display a prompt related to offering the shipping customer packaging material.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to cause the printer to generate a coupon for packaging material for the item to be shipped.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is further operative to provide a message to the node associated with the shipping customer, the message causing the node associated with the shipping customer to display a prompt related to an offer for packaging material.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the packaging material comprises one from the group consisting of a package, separator material, cushioning material, and a node-enabled package.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to provide a message to a user access device operated by shipping facility personnel, the message causing the user access device to display a prompt related to offering the shipping customer a specialized packaging material for the item to be shipped based upon the value of the item to be shipped identified as part of the shipping information.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node associated with the shipping facility is further operative to provide a message to a user access device operated by shipping facility personnel, the message causing the user access device to display a prompt related to offering the shipping customer a specialized packaging material for the item to be shipped based upon an indication that the item to be shipped is fragile.