Conduit-sharing apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 20050135406A1
• Filed: 12/17/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Fleming, Kristoffer D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,633,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/444
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6215 Individual queue per QOS, rate or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 for collaboration of different radio technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and article, may operate to share an energy conduit, such as an antenna, between first data communicated according to a first formatting mechanism and second data communicated according to a second formatting mechanism according to a first priority assigned to the first data and a second priority assigned to the second data. The first formatting mechanism may be different from the second formatting mechanism.

Claims

1. A method, including:

sharing an energy conduit between first data communicated according to a first formatting mechanism and second data communicated according to a second formatting mechanism different from the first formatting mechanism according to a first priority assigned to the first data and a second priority assigned to the second data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing the energy conduit further includes:

determining the second priority to be greater than the first priority; and

selecting the energy conduit to communicate the second data.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

assigning the first priority to the first data; and

assigning the second priority to the second data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first formatting mechanism is selected from one of a communications standard, a communications protocol, a spread-spectrum communications technique, a data format, and a data type.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the communications standard includes at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 standard and a Bluetooth System Specification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first priority is indicated by a priority tag attached to the first data according to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.1Q standard.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

sharing the first priority and the second priority using a hardware bus.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

sharing the first priority and the second priority using a memory.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

determining that the first priority and the second priority are substantially equal; and

activating an arbitration mechanism to determine whether the energy conduit will be selected for communicating the first data or the second data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the arbitration mechanism is selected from one of a round-robin technique, a credit-based technique, and a sliding window technique.

11. An article including a machine-accessible medium having associated information, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

sharing an energy conduit between first data communicated according to a first formatting mechanism and second data communicated according to a second formatting mechanism different from the first formatting mechanism according to a first priority assigned to the first data and a second priority assigned to the second data.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein the energy conduit is selected from one of an antenna, an infra-red transmitter, an infra-red receiver, a photo-emitter, a photo-receptor, and a charge-coupled device.

13. The article of claim 11, wherein sharing the energy conduit further includes:

determining that the second priority is greater than the first priority; and

selecting the energy conduit to communicate the second data.

14. The article of claim 11, wherein the first formatting mechanism is selected from one of a communications standard, a communications protocol, a spread-spectrum communications technique, a data format, and a data type.

15. The article of claim 11, further including:

determining that the first priority and the second priority are substantially equal; and

activating an arbitration mechanism to determine whether the energy conduit will be selected to communicate the first data or the second data.

16. An apparatus, including:

a determination module to determine whether a first priority assigned to first data associated with a first formatting mechanism is greater than a second priority assigned to second data associated with a second formatting mechanism different than the first formatting mechanism.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further including:

an assignment module to assign the first priority to the first data.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, further including:

a steering mechanism to direct one of the first data and the second data to be communicated through space via an energy conduit.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first formatting mechanism is selected from one of a communications standard, a communications protocol, a spread-spectrum communications technique, a data format, and a data type.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first priority is indicated by a priority tag attached to the data according to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.1Q standard.

21. A system, including:

a determination module to determine whether a first priority assigned to first data associated with a first formatting mechanism is greater than a second priority assigned to second data associated with a second formatting mechanism different than the first formatting mechanism; and

an energy conduit to communicate one of the first data and the second data through space.

22. The system of claim 21, further including:

a hardware bus to share the first priority and the second priority.

23. The system of claim 21, further including:

a memory to store the first priority and the second priority.

24. The system of claim 21, further including:

a memory to store the first data and the second data.

25. The system of claim 21, further including:

a transceiver to selectively couple the first data and the second data to the energy conduit.