Patent ID: 8274359

Claim:
A wireless access point for communicating messages in an electronic article surveillance network, the electronic article surveillance network including at least one electronic article surveillance sensor hard-wired to at least one wireless device node, the wireless access point comprising: a wired communication interface configured to receive a message, the message including a sub-layer address corresponding to an electronic article surveillance sensor; a wireless communication interface configured to: broadcast the message; and receive an acknowledgement of the broadcast message, the acknowledgment originating from the electronic article surveillance sensor corresponding to the sub-layer address; a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter buffer configured to receive the message through the wired communication interface, the message having been received as a series of data packets; a radio frequency data transfer buffer configured to store data packets to be broadcast through the wireless communication interface; a serial data transfer buffer configured to transfer data packets between the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter buffer and the radio frequency data transfer buffer; a controller electrically coupled to the wired communication interface and to the wireless communication interface, the controller configured to: transfer the message between the wired communication interface and the wireless communication interface in bursts; and a predictor configured to: measure a serial idle time between bursts; calculate a moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts; adaptively predict a serial idle trigger based on the moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts; and responsive to the serial idle time between bursts reaching the serial idle trigger, transferring data packets from the serial data transfer buffer to the radio frequency data transfer buffer.