Sensors located in the vicinity of a hydrocarbon-producing well receive power and communicate with one or more hubs located in the well or at the outer surface of a casing by means of elastodynamic waves. Each hub incorporates a plurality of transducers which permit focusing of the emitted elastodynamic waves. In order to concentrate the energy on a single sensor, or a group of sensors arranged in a cluster. Hubs and sensors communicate by exchanging, modulated elastodynamic waves. Sensors belonging to a cluster may transmit, properly time-shifted elastodynamic waves, in order to collectively focus their energy in the direction of a hub. Time synchronization between the sensors within a cluster may be accomplished by means of electromagnetic fields which travel much faster than elastodynamic waves, but can only propagate over short distances in typical formations.