Method for saving battery power in a radio communication system

摘要

A communications system (10) is characterised by a transmitter in a first communications unit (22-32) which transmits a signal (18, 19, 20) containing a message indicator (210-220); a receiver (148) in a second wireless communications unit (12, 14, 16) receives the transmitted signal and interprets the message indicator prior to demodulating or decoding the signal to determine whether a remainder of the signal is to be received and/or demodulated and/or decoded. By providing an early indication of the subsequent content of a received message a considerable amount of current drain can be saved by switching off the receiver circuitry.