WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM HAVING REDUCED NOISE MODE OPERATION CAPABILITY

A wireless communication system having a terminal unit (12) operates in a reduced noise state during receipt of a wireless transmission from a control unit (14). The terminal unit (12) includes terminal circuitry (16), a radio (18) and noise management circuitry (20). The noise management circuitry (20) partially or fully disables operation of the terminal circuitry (16) during a receipt by the radio (18). Noise management circuitry (20) may disable a terminal processor (302), disable interrupts, buffer interrupts and otherwise modify operation of the terminal circuitry (16) to reduce generated radio noise that would otherwise interfere with receipt of data by the radio (18). The wireless communication system includes noise management circuitry located in a control unit (206) that operates in conjunction with noise management circuitry in a first terminal unit (202) and a second terminal unit (204) to schedule transmissions from the control unit (206). These scheduled transmissions allow the terminal units (202) to perform required processing functions outside of the reduced noise period.