Patent ID: 6895014

Claim:
A method for polling a plurality of wireless modems from a base station, comprising: polling each modem at least once; forming two lists such that each modem is identified on only one discrete list, a first list identifying modems each of which responded the last time that it was polled by sending data back to the base station; and a second list identifying modems each of which either responded the last time that it was polled with a response that did not include sending data back to the base station, or did not respond at all the last time that it was polled, and thereafter, alternating polling all of the modems identified on the first list a first preselected number of times with polling all of the modems identified on the second list a second pre-selected number of times, while updating the lists based upon the behavior of the modems in response to the last polling so that the first list identifies modems each of which responded the last time that it was polled by sending data back to the base station and the second list identifies modems each of which either responded the last time that it was polled with a response that did not include sending data back to the base station, or did not respond at all the last time that it was polled.