That's exactly what a patent is! You don't patent "communicating wirelessly between two devices." That's a result. Instead, you patent something like OFDM, a particular, novel, way of achieving that result. Infringement is only found if someone else not only achieves the same result, but does so in substantially the same way. Even further, the scope of that way is cabined by prior art--you only get to claim protection over the parts of that mechanism that are actually novel.