Patent ID: 8031650

Claim:
A system for monitoring and controlling remote devices, said system comprising: a first, a second and a third remote devices; a first, a second and a third wireless transceivers integrated with said respective remote devices, wherein said wireless transceivers are configured to communicate with at least one of a spread-spectrum communication protocol and a fixed-frequency communication protocol; the first wireless transceiver and the third wireless transceivers each comprising a logic element configured to: transmit or receive a first portion of a communication frame at a first frequency channel, wherein the first portion of the communication frame comprises a data channel index that indicates a second frequency channel; switch to the second frequency channel; transmit or receive a second portion of the communication frame at the second frequency channel; the first wireless transceiver is configured to switch between communicating in said spread spectrum communication protocol and said fixed frequency communication protocol said communication protocols by determining if after traversing through a first set of designated channels for communicating in one of said communication protocols and not receiving a communication frame in one of said designated channels; and the first wireless transceiver and the second wireless transceiver are configured to communicate in the fixed-frequency communication protocol by transmitting or receiving a preamble and data portion of a communication frame at a third frequency channel.