Patent ID: 8902933

Claim:
A method for communication, comprising: transmitting a first uplink message from a first remote node to a central node in a wireless communication system according to a first frequency hopping scheme, the first frequency hopping scheme being a synchronized, time-slotted, frequency hopping scheme; transmitting a second uplink message from a second remote node to the central node in the wireless communication system according to a second frequency hopping scheme, the second frequency hopping scheme being a non-synchronized frequency hopping scheme; and concurrently employing both the first and the second frequency hopping schemes at the central node to receive and process both the first and the second uplink messages at the central node, said concurrently employing comprising employing said second frequency hopping scheme during idle periods in said first frequency hopping scheme, the second remote node transmitting the second uplink message using the second frequency hopping scheme in order to re-synchronize with the central node after having lost synchronization.