Establishing short range wireless communication between a vehicle and a mobile device

• US 10,321,508 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2015
• Issued: 06/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Thanayankizil, Lakshmi V., Pop, David P., Bai, Fan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Zhitong
• Application Number:
  US14/702,429
• Publication Number:
  US 20160323921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,502 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/19 Connection re-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A mobile communication system and a method of establishing short range wireless communication (SRWC) between a vehicle and a mobile device. The method includes: establishing a first short range wireless communication (SRWC) link between the vehicle and a first mobile device; receiving at the vehicle a request to establish a second SRWC link from a second mobile device; and disconnecting the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device and, in response to the request, establishing the second SRWC link between the vehicle and the second mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of establishing short range wireless communication (SRWC) between a vehicle and a mobile device, comprising the steps of:

establishing a first short range wireless communication (SRWC) link between a first transceiver of the vehicle and a first mobile device over a first frequency band, wherein the first SRWC link uses a first SRWC protocol;

receiving at the vehicle a request to establish a second SRWC link over the first frequency band from a second mobile device during a period when the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device is active, wherein the second SRWC link uses a second SRWC protocol that is different from the first SRWC protocol and that requires a transmission frequency corresponding to the first frequency band;

determining that the second SRWC link is to be established using the transmission frequency at the first transceiver of the vehicle based on identifying that the second SRWC protocol requires the transmission frequency corresponding to the first frequency band;

in response to receiving the request from the second mobile device and in response to the determination that the second SRWC link is to be established using the transmission frequency at the first transceiver of the vehicle, obtaining a pause communications indication, wherein the pause communications indication specifies an amount of time to pause communications over the first SRWC link between the first transceiver and the first mobile device, and wherein the amount of time to pause the communications over the first SRWC link between the first transceiver and the first mobile device is determined based on recalling a predetermined value from memory of vehicle electronics of the vehicle;

after obtaining the pause communications indication, providing the pause communications indication to the first mobile device and providing an indication of an intent to change frequency bands to the first mobile device, wherein the first mobile device is configured to pause transmissions to the vehicle over the first SRWC link for the amount of time specified in the pause communications indication in response to receiving the pause communications indication;

disconnecting the first SRWC link between the first transceiver of the vehicle and the first mobile device and, in response to the request and after disconnecting the first SRWC link between the first transceiver of the vehicle and the first mobile device, establishing the second SRWC link between the first transceiver of the vehicle and the second mobile device over the first frequency band; and

during a period when the second SRWC link between the vehicle and the second mobile device is active, re-establishing the first SRWC link between a second transceiver of the vehicle and the first mobile device using a second frequency band according to the first SRWC protocol, wherein the first frequency band is different from the second frequency band, wherein the first SRWC protocol is operable at the first frequency band and at the second frequency band, the first SRWC protocol operating according to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second mobile devices establish the first and second SRWC links, respectively, with a vehicle infotainment system (VIS).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second mobile devices establish the first and second SRWC links, respectively, using a vehicle telematics unit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle includes the first transceiver and the second transceiver.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first transceiver is configured for 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) communication and the second transceiver is configured for 5 GHz communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device is according to a 5 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band and re-establishing the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device is according to a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

7. A method of establishing short range wireless communication (SRWC) between a vehicle and a mobile device, comprising the steps of:

establishing a first short range wireless communication (SRWC) link between the vehicle and a first mobile device using a first transceiver of the vehicle over a 5 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band;

receiving at the vehicle from a second mobile device a request to establish a second SRWC link using a Wi-Fi direct protocol during a period when the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device using the first transceiver of the vehicle over the 5 GHz frequency band is active, wherein the Wi-Fi direct protocol as implemented by the second mobile device requires use of the 5 GHz frequency band for wireless communications;

during the period when the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device using the first transceiver of the vehicle over the 5 GHz frequency band is active, determining that the second mobile device needs to use the 5 GHz frequency band;

after receiving the request and in response to the determining step, disconnecting the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device by providing a pause communications indicator that specifies an amount of time to pause communications over the first SRWC link between the first mobile device and the vehicle, and, in response to the request, establishing the second SRWC link between the first transceiver of the vehicle and the second mobile device using the Wi-Fi direct protocol over the 5 GHz frequency band; and

after receiving the request to establish the second SRWC link using the Wi-Fi direct protocol, establishing the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device using a second transceiver of the vehicle over a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the request is a phone projection request.

9. A method of establishing short range wireless communication (SRWC) between a vehicle and two mobile devices, a first mobile device and a second mobile device, comprising the steps of:

receiving at the vehicle a short range wireless communication (SRWC) link request from the second mobile device to establish a second SRWC link over the first channel while the vehicle and the first mobile device have an established first SRWC link over a first channel, wherein the first SRWC link uses a first SRWC protocol;

determining that the second SRWC link requires a transmission frequency corresponding to the first channel based at least partly on information received in the connection request;

in response to the determination, temporarily terminating the first SRWC link by providing a pause communications indicator that specifies an amount of time to pause communications over the first SRWC link between the first mobile device and the vehicle, and establishing the second SRWC link between the vehicle and the second mobile device over the first channel; and

re-establishing the first SRWC link between the vehicle and the first mobile device over a second channel using the first SRWC protocol.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and second SRWC links are between the two mobile devices and a vehicle infotainment system (VIS).