Patent ID: 9554363
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04W,Y02D

Claim:
1. A TDMA-based communication method for enabling communication between a base station and a client, the base station and the client each comprising a clock for synchronising communications, the method comprising: allocating a TDMA channel to said client, the TDMA channel being defined by a sequence of frames, each frame comprising one or more client time slots and one or more respective base time slots, each base time slot beginning in advance of and/or continuing after the respective client time slot; causing a transceiver of the client to operate in a communication mode during the one or more client time slot making up each frame of said allocated channel and to operate in a sleep mode at other times; and causing a transceiver of said base station to begin operating in a communication mode with said client during the one or more base time slot(s) making up each frame of said allocated channel, such that when the base station transceiver begins operating in a communication mode said client is expected to be in a sleep mode or when the base station transceiver stops operating in a communication mode said client is expected to be in a sleep mode, wherein a determination that said client is expected to be in a sleep mode comprises taking into account an expected drift of the client clock and/or the base station clock.