Patent ID: 8279895

Claim:
A wireless communication system that employs a multi-channel MAC protocol based on a superframe concept, comprising: a multi-channel PHY superframe structure that logically organizes a plurality of channels including a superframe per channel having a control window of a fixed duration and a remaining part, one of said plurality of channels being a logical channel defined as a meeting point/rendezvous channel used by a device to synchronize with the system; and at least one device configured to include: a transmitter that transmits superframes according to said PHY superframe structure; and a receiver that listens for said PHY superframe structure on a predetermined set of channels of the plurality of channels, wherein, with a pre-determined periodicity said at least one device synchronizes/resynchronizes with the system by the receiver listening to the rendezvous channel; and wherein the PHY superframe structure is selected from the group consisting of parallel multi-channel superframe (PMS) transmitted such that superframes are transmitted in parallel in each channel of said plurality, and a non-overlapping multi-channel superframe (NMS) such that control windows of sequentially transmitted superframes do not overlap by more than a pre-determined overlap allowance value.