Patent ID: 7592897

Claim:
A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader system for communicating with RFID tags using a plurality of communication channels, comprising: an antenna; and an operational processing block coupled to the antenna and operable to: cause a first wireless signal to be transmitted via the antenna to the RFID tags, the first wireless signal having a frequency carrier in a first one of the channels; determine whether or not objectionable interference has been detected based on a reply from at least one RFID tag communicating in the first channel and RF energy received in at least one of the channels available for communicating with the RFID tags; and cause a second signal to be transmitted to the RFID tags, the second signal having a frequency carrier in a second channel, and in which the second signal staffs to be transmitted at a first hopping time if no objectionable interference has been detected, and at a second hopping time earlier than the first hopping time if objectionable interference has been detected.