1. A method for transmitting entity of a plurality of entities within a network to establish a data transmission within the network, the method comprises: determining identity of a target entity of the plurality of entities; determining transmission characteristics between the transmitting entity and the target entity, the transmission characteristics comprising network layer overhead data and physical layer overhead data; determining a transmission convention based on the transmission characteristics; combining data from two or more portions of a data packet into a single portion, the single portion containing less data than the two or more portions combined to reduce an amount of data transmitted in the data transmission and the two or more portions comprising network layer overhead data and physical layer overhead data; providing the transmission convention to the target entity; and wherein the transmission convention is selected in response to the determined transmission characteristics of a transmission path between the transmitting entity and the target entity prior to the data transmission and wherein the transmission path between the transmitting entity and the target entity is a portion of a micro-area network.