Patent ID: 7167484

Claim:
A centralized coordination device for a wireless communication network, wherein a first plurality of communication devices using a first protocol and a second plurality of communication devices using a second protocol exchange data transmissions within the wireless communication network using at least partially overlapping communication frequencies, the first plurality of communication devices comprising a master device and a slave device, wherein communications from the master device to the slave device comprise downstream data transmissions and communications from the slave device to the master device comprise upstream data transmissions, the centralized coordination device comprising: a receiving component configured to receive data transmissions derived from the first and second plurality of communication devices; and a signal processing component that assesses the data transmissions received by the receiving component to identify impending collisions between data transmissions using the first and the second protocols; determines a communication link type between the master device and the slave device using the first protocol and moderates the data transmissions by influencing the downstream data transmissions associated with at least some of the communication devices.