Hi,
I recommend the JN-AN-1216 Control Bridge, This example provide a coordinator example and tool that you can send a command to one of the devices, recognize if this is a router or end device. You can set the maximum nodes that you want.

Note: If you limit the routers that you want, the coordinator will increase the end devices table and the memory will be short and not enough for all the end devices.
Then, a simple example Please take a look at the JN-AN-1217. It provides a router and an end device template.
ZigBee 3.0|NXP
Another option could be theIEEE 802.15.4 for JN516x and JN517x|NXP without all the Zigbee stack.
Please let me know if you have more questions.
Regards,
Mario