Premises, peripheral and vehicular local area networking

A communication system (30) in which multiple local area networks (37, 40, 41) exhibiting different characteristics are employed to link portable or mobile computing devices (35, 36). Radio base stations (33, 56, 57, 58, 59) connected to a backbone LAN and at least one mobile computing device (35, 36) form a high-power LAN (37), using a frequency hopping protocol. A low-power LAN (40, 41) allows for radio communication between a mobile computing device (35, 36) and peripheral devices (43, 44, 45), using a single-frequency spread spectrum protocol. A vehicular LAN provides for short-range communication between vehicle terminals (3007) and portable terminals (3009). Radio units (35, 36) participating in multiple LANs (37, 40, 41) use the appropriate protocol, frequency and power level for communicating through the communication system (30).