Patent ID: 8050297

Claim:
A method of enabling a plurality of systems ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ) to communicate over a common communication channel wherein each system ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ) is configured to enable communication during periodic and essentially temporally contiguous respective frame periods ( 409 - 1 , 409 - 2 , 409 - 3 ) determined essentially asynchronously by each said respective system ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ) and having occupied temporal portions of each said frame period ( 409 - 1 , 409 - 2 , 409 - 3 ) comprised of transmission communication periods dedicated to each said respective system ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ) and wherein each said frame period ( 409 - 1 , 409 - 2 , 409 - 3 ) has a start and an end that essentially spans the entire temporal bandwidth of said common communication channel, said method comprising the steps of: transmitting during each said frame period ( 409 - 1 , 409 - 2 , 409 - 3 ) from each said respective system ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ), at least one type of beacon message ( 454 , 456 or 458 ) having a respective unique heavily-coded beacon marker code portion ( 460 , 464 or 468 ), wherein said step of transmitting at least one type of beacon message additionally comprises the step of transmitting at least one wandering beacon message having a moveable temporal offset from the start of its respective frame period; receiving beacon messages ( 454 , 456 , 458 ) by each of said systems ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ) according to said heavily-coded beacon marker code portions ( 460 , 464 , 468 ) from other said systems ( 300 - 2 , 300 - 3 ), ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 3 ), ( 300 - 1 , 300 - 2 ) that are within communication range; processing two or more of said received heavily-coded beacon marker code portions ( 460 , 464 , 468 ) of said respective beacon messages ( 454 , 456 , 458 ) to thereby determine the start of the frame period of another one of said systems; and determining which received beacon messages uniquely correspond to other said systems according to uniquely defined temporal displacements between said received wandering beacon messages.