An external controller wishing to communicate with a particular microstimulator in a microstimulator therapeutic network broadcasts a unique wake-up signal corresponding to a particular one of the microstimulators. Each microstimulator has its unique wake-up signal stored in memory, and the wake-up signals for each microstimulator are also stored in the external controller. The microstimulators power up their receiver circuits to listen for a wake-up signal at the beginning of a power-on window. Each microstimulator not recognizing the received wake-up signal (because it does not match the wake-up signal stored in its memory) will power off their receivers at the end of the power-on window, or earlier once recognition cannot be established. The one microstimulator recognizing the received wake-up signal (because it matches the wake-up signal stored in its memory) will realize that the external controller wishes to communicate with it, and will send an acknowledgment to the external controller, which will in turn send the desired communication to the now-active microstimulator.
