Patent ID: 8447367

Claim:
A process measurement instrument configured for wireless communication, comprising: a measurement unit configured to determine a measurement value of a filling level of a product in a tank, said measurement unit having an operation comprising active time periods and inactive time periods, said active time periods having higher power consumption than said inactive time periods, a memory configured to store a current measurement value of said filling level, a wireless communication unit, configured to access said current measurement value and communicate said current measurement value over a wireless communication channel according to a communication protocol, wherein said communication protocol is a time division multiple access (TDMA) protocol, and relies on specific timing controlled externally of said process measurement instrument, wherein said wireless communication unit has active periods during TDMA communication slots allocated by said communication protocol, and inactive periods between said active periods, and arbitration logic, in communication with said measurement unit and said wireless communication unit, wherein said arbitration logic controls the active periods of the measurement unit to occur between active periods of said wireless communication unit for avoiding power consumption spikes and interference in said process measurement instrument.