Short-range wireless controller filtering and reporting

• US 10,334,528 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2018
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Viswanadham, Prerepa V., Wang, Wei, Desai, Meghan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tuan H
• Application Number:
  US15/959,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20180242252A1
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2621 using frequency division multiple access [FDMA] H04B7/2615 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74591 using content-addressable memories [CAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• 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 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods and systems for filter data packets using an advertising data packet content filter are disclosed. An example method involves maintaining, by a Bluetooth device, an advertising data content filter. The advertising data content filter includes at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host Bluetooth stack. The method also involves receiving, by the Bluetooth device, a data packet from an advertising Bluetooth device. The method further involves determining, by the Bluetooth device, that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter. And the method involves providing a portion of the data packet to the host Bluetooth stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a short-range wireless device, an advertising data content filter, wherein the advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack, wherein the host stack is implemented by a host processor of the short-range wireless device;

receiving, by a short-range wireless controller of the short-range wireless device while the host processor of the short-range wireless device is in an idle mode or sleep mode, a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining, by the short-range wireless device, that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filter, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter, wherein the short-range wireless controller carries out the delivering of received data packets independently of the host processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless controller carries out the delivering of received data packets while the host processor is in the idle more or sleep mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with the particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter comprises:

the short-range wireless controller storing the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless controller to avoid providing the portion of the data packet to the host processor and waking up the host processor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with the particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter comprises:

the short-range wireless controller storing the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless controller until the host processor independently wakes up and requests data packets from the short-range wireless controller.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with the particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter comprises:

the short-range wireless controller storing the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless controller for a predetermined time period; and

after expiration of the predetermined time period, the short-range wireless controller provides the portion of the data packet stored in the memory to the host processor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering the portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with the particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter comprises:

the short-range wireless controller storing the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless controller until the memory is full; and

once the memory is full, the short-range wireless controller provides the portion of the data packet stored in the memory to the host processor.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more commands for configuring parameters of the advertising data content filter; and

configuring the parameters of the advertising data content filter based on the one or more commands.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one content filter for the advertising data content filter is selected from the group consisting of:

a broadcaster address filter;

a service universally unique identifier (UUID) filter;

a service solicitation UUID filter;

a local name filter;

a manufacturer data filter; and

a service data filter.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises an advertising packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises a scan response packet.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a verification mode wherein the portion of the data packet is delivered to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising data content filter further comprises a configurable received signal strength indication (RSSI) threshold, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether an RSSI of the data packet satisfies the RSSI threshold; and

if the RSSI of the data packet satisfies the RSSI threshold, filtering the data packet using the advertising data content filter, but if the RSSI of the data packet does not satisfy the RSSI threshold, then ignoring the data packet.

13. A short-range wireless device comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium, configured to store instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the short-range wireless device to perform functions comprising;

maintaining an advertising data content filter, wherein the advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack, wherein the host stack is implemented by a host processor of the short-range wireless device;

receiving, by a short-range wireless controller of the short-range wireless device while the host processor of the short-range wireless device is in an idle mode or sleep mode, a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filter, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter, wherein the short-range wireless controller carries out the delivering of received data packets independently of the host processor.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the short-range wireless controller carries out the delivering of received data packets while the host processor is in the idle more or sleep mode.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the at least one content filter for the advertising data content filter is selected from the group consisting of:

a broadcaster address filter;

a service universally unique identifier (UUID) filter;

a service solicitation UUID filter;

a local name filter;

a manufacturer data filter; and

a service data filter.

16. The device of claim 13, wherein the data packet comprises an advertising packet.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the data packet comprises a scan response packet.

18. The device of claim 13, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a verification mode wherein the portion of the data packet is delivered to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by one or more processors of a short-range wireless device, cause the short-range wireless device to perform functions comprising:

maintaining an advertising data content filter, wherein the advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack, wherein the host stack is implemented by a host processor of the short-range wireless device;

receiving, by a short-range wireless controller of the short-range wireless device while the host processor of the short-range wireless device is in an idle mode or sleep mode, a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filter, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter, wherein the short-range wireless controller carries out the delivering of received data packets independently of the host processor.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the functions further comprise determining whether to immediately deliver providing a portion of the data packet to the host stack, store the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless device, or deliver the portion of the data packet to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device, in accordance with the at least one respective delivery mode corresponding to the content filter for the corresponding application.