Abstract text

An implantable pulse generator communicates with external devices such as device programmers and network repeaters to exchange data. The communication utilizes a communication protocol such that data is transferred in packets and transport control information is included for each of the packets. Network routing information may also be provided for each of the packets to establish additional capabilities including network addressing, priority control, or recipient validation. Information exchange instructions are executed by the implantable pulse generator to take data from one or more application programs being executed by the implantable pulse generator, divide the data into packets, and add the transport control information, and network routing information if desired, for outgoing packets. Additionally, the information exchange instructions may be executed by the implantable pulse generator to extract the network routing information if available and the transport control information from incoming packets and to reconstruct the data from the packets and provide the data to the one or more application programs.