Patent ID: 8139613

Claim:
A method for channel inspection in a communication system, the method comprising: conducting a full inspection on a first channel carrying a first signal, the full inspection comprising, determining a location of a first synchronization message; and determining whether the first signal is of interest; upon determining that the first signal is not of interest, marking the first channel to cause a partial inspection to be conducted on the first channel upon next returning to the first channel, wherein the marking includes remembering the location of the first synchronization message; leaving the first channel and determining an expected location of a second synchronization message on the first channel based on the location of the first synchronization message; returning to the first channel, and conducting a partial inspection on the first channel carrying a second signal, the partial inspection comprising, detecting whether the second synchronization message is present at the expected location, wherein the presence of the second synchronization message indicates that the second signal is not of interest.