Patent ID: 7792554

Claim:
A method for use by a communication device in scanning to establish a connection with a wireless communication network for communications, the method comprising the acts of: establishing an upper limit of a plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods n=[n1, n2, . . . , upper limit M] at a value of M; causing a scanning operation to be performed to identify one or more available wireless communication networks in a coverage area of the communication device; each time the scanning operation fails to result in any connection between the communication device and a wireless communication network, causing the scanning operation to be repeated after delaying for a next scanning delay period of the plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods; identifying a battery drainage rate of the communication device; comparing the battery drainage rate with a predetermined battery drainage rate threshold; identifying that a predetermined battery condition exists if the battery drainage rate is outside a limit set by the predetermined battery drainage rate threshold; and reestablishing the upper limit of the plurality of consecutively-increasing scanning delay periods n=[n1, n2, . . . , upper limit N] at a value of N>M based on identifying the predetermined battery condition of the communication device.