Patent ID: 7984132

Claim:
A method of operating a communications device which supports multiple peer discovery modes including a first transmit peer discovery mode during which peer discovery signals are transmitted at a first rate and a second transmit peer discovery mode during which peer discovery signals are transmitted at a second rate, said second rate being higher than the first rate, the method comprising: while operating in said first transmit peer discovery mode, determining if a change condition used to trigger a change from the first transmit peer discovery mode to the second transmit peer discovery mode occurred; and upon detecting that said change condition used to trigger a change from the first transmit peer discovery mode to the second transmit peer discovery mode has occurred, transitioning from the first transmit peer discovery mode to the second transmit peer discovery mode; wherein determining if a change condition used to trigger a change from the first transmit peer discovery mode to the second transmit peer discovery mode occurred includes: making said determination as a function of received peer discovery signals.