US Patent 6954446 Multiple mode RF communication device

A multiple mode RF communication device (100), such as a transmitter, receiver or transceiver, has a first RF communication resource (102, 122) that communicates by default using a first communication mode. A second RF communication resource (104, 124) communicates by default using a second communication mode. A system manager (110) deploys the first and second communication resources according to a set of deployment rules, wherein the deployment rules may be dependent upon a communication quality parameter, priorities, availability of the first and second communication resources as well as other parameters.