System and method for sharing a common communication channel between multiple systems of implantable medical devices

摘要

A system and method that facilitates multiple systems of communicating devices, i.e., a master device and one or more implantable slave devices, to coexist on a common, e.g., RF, communication channel having a limited temporal bandwidth while maintaining the required update rate between each master device and its associated slave devices. In embodiments of the present invention, master devices periodically transmit one or more beacon messages that are suitable for identification by other such master devices at a communication range greater than the communication range that may cause interference between systems and thus enabling one or more systems to cause the position of its frame periods to be interleaved with the frame periods of other such systems in anticipation of systems moving in closer proximity and actually interfering with each other.