System and method for mitigating the effects of interferers while performing conditional device scan

A short range communication device operating as a slave, comprising:

• a data storage that stores at least one protocol-specific channel criterion for a connection with a master short range communication device;
• a short range transceiver that executes a preliminary device scan of a scanning set of communication channels for detecting radio frequency energy;
• and
• a processor that decides to execute a full device scan based in part on the protocol-specific channel criterion, wherein the radio frequency energy detected matches an expected condition associated with the protocol specific criterion, and wherein the protocol-specific channel criterion is at least one of an initial radio frequency energy level of an initial channel of a protocol-specific channel subset corresponding to a prior pairing, a detected radio frequency energy level on sequential channels of a frequency hopping pattern, a frequency bandwidth of the detected radio frequency energy, a time duration of the detected radio frequency energy, a time delay between energy bursts, and a variance in received signal strength indication of proximate energy bursts;
• wherein the processor is further adapted to determine a protocol-specific channel subset of a scanning set of communication channels for a preliminary device scan, the protocol-specific channel subset being less than a full set of available protocol-specific channels and based upon the particular channels used as part of an earlier pairing with a master personal area network device.