Patent ID: 7756086

Claim:
A method of communicating with a multi-mode communication protocol in a given frequency band composed of a plurality of channels, wherein a first set of the plurality of channels are designated fixed-frequency channels and a second set of the plurality of channels are designated spread-spectrum channels, the spread-spectrum channels being composed of a first subset of acquisition channels and a second subset of data channels, the acquisition channels separated by data channels, the method comprising: enabling communication in a spread-spectrum communication mode; attempting to receive a communication packet by traversing through the subset of acquisition channels; upon receiving a communication packet, switching to a data channel designated by the communication packet; and receiving and verifying a data portion of the communication packet by communicating in the designated data channel; upon not receiving a communication packet after traversing through the subset of acquisition channels, enabling communication in a fixed-frequency communication mode; attempting to receive a communication packet by traversing through the designated fixed-frequency channels and searching for a training sequence in the preamble of the communication packet; and upon receiving a communication packet, receiving and verifying a data portion of the communication packet by maintaining communication in the current fixed-frequency channel.