Patent ID: 6868058

Claim:
A method for ranging transmitters within a network, the network including a controller and a plurality of transmitters communicatively coupled to the controller over a communications path and exchanging information using TDMA technology, the method comprising the steps of: assigning a particular transmitter of the plurality of transmitters to a particular time-slot of a TDMA frame to facilitate communication between the particular transmitter and the controller; performing a search loop on a first set of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters wherein the operation of each of the first set of transmitters is verified; identifying each of the first set of transmitters that fail during the search loop as a failed transmitter; if the number of failed transmitters exceeds a first integrity threshold, disabling the transmission of a second set of the transmitters of the plurality of transmitters; performing a range attempt on a first failed transmitter; if the range attempt fails, enabling the transmission of the second set of transmitters; and if the range attempt succeeds, performing a range attempt on a next failed transmitter until a range attempt has been performed on each failed transmitter or the range attempt fails, and then enable the transmission of the second set of transmitters.