Enhanced bluetooth communication system

• US 20060025075A1
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Im, Jeon-Taek, Chung, Woo-Suk, Kang, Sung-Bong, Choi, Joong-Kyu
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,353 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The present invention provides a system with a plurality of Bluetooth dongles connected to a single host. Each dongle is connected to a different port on the host and each dongle can accommodate a piconet of up to seven Bluetooth devices. The host communicates with the Bluetooth devices via Bluetooth channels. The host includes an application layer, a Host Control Interface (HCI) layer and an interface device driver layer. An Interface Map Table (IMT) is stored in the host. The IMT associates each port on the host with the BD address of a particular Bluetooth dongle and with the channels associated with the particular dongle. The HCI layer and the Interface handler layer consult the IMT to direct commands and data to the correct port on the host.

Claims

1. A Bluetooth system including

a host computer having a plurality of ports and at least one Bluetooth application,

a plurality of Bluetooth dongles, each dongle connected to a particular port on said host and having a particular BD address,

a plurality of Bluetooth devices connected to each of said dongles, each Bluetooth device having a particular channel associated therewith,

an interface map table stored in said host, said interface map table associating each Bluetooth device with a particular port on said host, a particular BD address and a particular channel,

a HCI control interface layer between said dongles and said host, said HCI control interface utilizing said interface map table to direct command packets, event packets and data packets between said Bluetooth application and particular Bluetooth devices.

2. The system recited in claim 1 wherein said system includes two ports and a Bluetooth dongle is connected to each of said ports.

3. The system recited in claim 1 wherein said ports are USB ports.

4. The system recited in claim 1 wherein said ports are RS232 ports.

5. A Bluetooth system including

a host computer that has a plurality of ports,

programs in said host including applications, a profile, a protocol stack, a host control interface and interface device drivers,

a plurality of Bluetooth dongles, each Bluetooth dongle having a particular BD address, each dongle connected to a particular port on said host,

a plurality of Bluetooth devices connected to said dongles, each of said Bluetooth device having a particular channel associated therewith, said Bluetooth devices being controlled by HCI command packets,

an interface map table which associates each device channel with a particular port and a particular BD address,

whereby HCI commands can be sent to specific Bluetooth devices.

6. The system recited in claim 5 wherein said system includes two ports and a Bluetooth dongle is connected to each of said ports.

7. The system recited in claim 5 wherein said ports are USB ports.

8. The system recited in claim 5 wherein said ports are RS232 ports.

9. In a system that includes a host computer having a plurality of ports, a plurality of Bluetooth dongles connected to said ports, an HCI layer in said host, a interface handler layer in said host, and a plurality of Bluetooth devices connected to said dongles, the method that includes,

an initialization process that includes the steps of generating an interface map table by performing the following steps when a device is connected to said host through one of said dongles,

said interface handler reading the port number through which the port is connected, and storing the port number to said interface map table,

said HCI layer sending a request to read a BD address from the dongle,

said interface handler reading the BD address from said dongle and storing said BD address in said interface map table.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said HCI layer sends a create connection command to said interface handler and said interface handler stores a channel ID in said interface map table after a channel is created by the create connection command.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a system to execute the method recited in claim 9.

11. A Bluetooth system comprising:

a host computer having ports, protocol layers and an interface map table;

said host computer having an interface map table,

a plurality of Bluetooth dongles, each dongle connected to a particular port on the host computer and having a particular BD address; and

at least one Bluetooth device connected to one of the plurality of Bluetooth dongles, the at least one Bluetooth device having a particular channel ID

wherein the interface map table in the host computer associates the at least one Bluetooth device with the particular port, the particular BD address and the particular channel ID so that the at least one Bluetooth device communicates the host computer through one of the plurality of Bluetooth dongles.

12. The Bluetooth system of claim 11, wherein an interface handler layer of the protocol layers generates the interface map table.

13. The Bluetooth system of claim 11, wherein a host control interface layer of the protocol layers utilizes the interface map table to direct command packets, event packets and data packets between the host computer and the at least one Bluetooth device.

14. A computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed in a system, that includes a host computer having a plurality of ports, a plurality of Bluetooth dongles connected to said ports, an HCI layer in said host, a interface handler layer in said host, and a plurality of Bluetooth devices connected to said dongles,

cause said system to:

perform an initialization process that includes the steps of generating an interface map table by performing the following steps when a device is connected to said host through one of said dongles,

said interface handler reading the port number through which the port is connected, and storing the port number to said interface map table,

said HCI layer sending a request to read a BD address from the dongle, said interface handler reading the BD address from said dongle and storing said BD address in said interface map table.