Patent ID: 8554138

Claim:
A method for priority signaling over a wireless serial communication channel, the method comprising: at a first communication device: establishing a first short range wireless data path to a second communication device for exchanging non-priority data; establishing a second short range wireless data path to the second communication device, which is different than the first short range wireless data path, for exchanging priority data encoded into a byte stream, wherein the second short range wireless data path comprises a wireless serial communication channel, further wherein the priority data comprises a one-bit indication of a push-to-talk (PTT) state encoded into the byte stream, wherein the first and second short range wireless data paths are both established by upper layer of a protocol stack, in the first communication device, that includes an application layer, and further wherein the established second short range wireless data path bypasses the upper layer of the protocol stack, that includes the application layer when the priority data is sent from the first communication device to the second communication device to reduce the latency of the sending the priority data on the second short range wireless data path compared to the latency of sending the priority data on the first short range wireless data path.