Wireless polling system using spread-spectrum communication

A wireless communication system, comprising:

• at least one master unit and a plurality of slave units communicating with said at least one master unit over at least one wireless communication link, said at least one master unit comprising a master processor and at least one master transceiver, said plurality of handheld slave units comprising a plurality of slave processors and a plurality of slave transceivers, each of said slave processors and slave transceivers at one of said slave units, said at least one wireless communication link comprising said at least one master transceiver and said plurality of slave transceivers;
• wherein said master processor is programmed to control said at least one master transceiver to send polling signals to said slave units over said at least one wireless communication link;
• wherein said slave processors are programmed to control said slave transceivers to send data to said at least one master unit over said at least one wireless communication link in response to one of the polling signals;
• wherein said at least one master transceiver is controlled by said base processor and said slave transceivers are controlled by said slave processors to communicate with a spread-spectrum frequency hopping protocol, wherein said at least one master transceiver sends polling signals and said slave transceivers send data in response to the polling signals using time domain multiplexing;
• wherein said at least one master unit provides frequency hopping information to said slave units so that said slave units can respond to the polling signals, wherein said polling signals include an initial transmission having a seed packet and wherein said slave units receive said polling signals and determine a hop frequency to send a response to that particular polling signal as a function of the information contained in the seed packet and as a function of an address assigned to the slave unit, wherein at least some of said slave units send a response to a particular polling signal at different hop frequencies;
• wherein the initial transmissions comprise transmissions on multiple different hop frequencies according to a spread-spectrum protocol;
• and
• wherein said slave transceivers receive an initial transmission at a particular home frequency.

A wireless communication system, comprising:

• at least one master unit and a plurality of slave units communicating with said at least one master unit over at least one wireless communication link, said at least one master unit comprising a master processor and at least one master transceiver, said plurality of handheld slave units comprising a plurality of slave processors and a plurality of slave transceivers, each of said slave processors and slave transceivers at one of said slave units, said at least one wireless communication link comprising said at least one master transceiver and said plurality of slave transceivers;
• wherein said master processor is programmed to control said at least one master transceiver to send polling signals to said slave units over said at least one wireless communication link;
• wherein said slave processors are programmed to control said slave transceivers to send data to said at least one master unit over said at least one wireless communication link in response to one of the polling signals;
• and
• wherein said at least one master transceiver is controlled by said master processor and said slave transceivers are controlled by said slave processors to communicate with a spread-spectrum frequency hopping protocol, wherein said at least one master transceiver sends polling signals and said slave transceivers send data in response to the polling signals using time domain multiplexing;
• wherein said at least one master unit provides frequency hopping information to said slave units so that said slave units can respond to the polling signals, wherein said polling signals include an initial transmission having a seed packet and wherein said slave units are adapted to receive said polling signals and determine a hop frequency to send a response to that particular polling signal as a function of the information contained in the seed packet and as a function of an address assigned to the slave unit, wherein at least some of said slave units send a response to a particular polling signal at different hop frequencies;
• wherein the initial transmissions comprise transmissions on multiple different hop frequencies according to a spread-spectrum protocol;
• wherein said slave transceivers receive an initial transmission at a particular home frequency;
• and
• wherein each of said slave units dynamically moves to a different particular home frequency if no polling signal is received within a period of time.