Wireless communication system with parallel polling

Claim 1

A wireless communication system, comprising: at least one base station, and a set of remote modules; wherein said base station includes a first RF transmitter capable of operation at a first frequency, and a second RF receiver capable of operation at a second frequency; and wherein each of said remote modules includes a first RF receiver capable of operation at said first frequency, and a second RF transmitter capable of operation at said second frequency; and said first transmitter and said second receiver of said base station, and said second transmitter and said first receiver of said remote module, are connected so that said base station and said remote module can carry on data communications on said first and second frequencies, but only while in mutual proximity; wherein said base station can broadcast a polling command, over said first frequency, to ascertain what remote modules are in proximity at a given moment; whereupon, if a respective one of said modules happens to be in proximity to said base station and respective module will receive said poling command through said respective first receiver, and will respond to said polling command, throuyh said respective second transmitter thereof, with a response which includes an identification field; and wherein at least a portion of said identification field contains bit positions which are individually, and not combinatorially or numerically, assigned to correspond to respective subsets of said set of remote modules; and wherein said base station contains logic to decode response to said polling command, and to determine the presence of multiple ones of said subsets of said modules, if ones of said subsets simultaneously respond to said polling command.