Patent ID: 6208668
Filing Date: 2001-03-27
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
In a selective messaging unit having a clock and operable on one or more operating channels, each operating channel temporally divided into frames with a frame having a signal lasting for a frame time, the frame periodically repeating, a method of acquiring an operating channel after that operating channel has been lost, the method minimizing battery usage and including the steps of:recording an elapsed time since losing the operating channel;calculating a clock accuracy value equal to a product of an oscillator stability and the elapsed time;comparing said clock accuracy value to a first threshold determined from a temporal distance between a nearest frame boundary and a location within the frame where scanning will occur when the clock is perfectly accurate;scanning for the signal during a time of the frame as determined by said clock; andalso scanning for the signal during the time of an adjacent frame as determined by said clock, when the clock accuracy value is not less than the first threshold.