APPARATUS FOR AND METHOD OF BLUETOOTH AND WIMAX COEXISTENCE IN A MOBILE HANDSET

• US 20070232358A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Sherman, Itay
• Granted Patent: US 7,929,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/560
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3805 with built-in auxiliary receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 for collaboration of different radio technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A novel and useful apparatus for and method of Bluetooth and WiMAX coexistence. The invention provides a system approach to achieving coexistence between Bluetooth and WiMAX transceivers collocated in a mobile terminal. The coexistence mechanism of the present invention is particularly suited to operation of WiMAX in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz frequency bands. In operation, the coexistence mechanism of the present invention utilizes multiple algorithms depending on the capabilities of the Bluetooth peer and the power save support level of the WiMAX base station. In the example embodiment presented herein, the coexistence mechanism is implemented in the MAC layer of the Bluetooth and WiMAX radio modules.

Claims

1. A method of coexistence between a Bluetooth transceiver and a WiMAX transceiver collocated in a mobile device, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a signal indicating active reception or transmission of said WiMAX transceiver; and

receiving said signal by said Bluetooth transceiver and blocking transmit and receive activity in said Bluetooth transceiver in response thereto.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said signal is generated by said WiMAX transceiver when it receives a frame header and media access protocol (MAP) and in all receive and transmit slots associated therewith.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of periodically creating WiMAX silence periods if WiMAX traffic is not sufficiently sparse.

4. A method of coexistence between a Bluetooth transceiver and a WiMAX transceiver collocated in a mobile device, said method comprising the steps of:

synchronizing said Bluetooth transceiver to WiMAX frames;

WiMAX switching to power save mode in response to Bluetooth eSCO link setup;

configuring WiMAX listen period and sleep window as a multiple of a basic eSCO period, said Bluetooth transceiver attempting to establish eSCO periods as a multiple of WiMAX frame size; and

if base station capabilities do not permit power save and WiMAX frame size, selecting a listen period and sleep window such that at least one retransmission attempt for each Bluetooth eSCO burst does not overlap said WiMAX listen window.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said step of synchronizing comprises the step of said WiMAX transceiver generating a synchronization signal for input to said Bluetooth transceiver.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein said step of configuring comprises the step of configuring said listen period to be smaller then a non-active period of said eSCO link.

7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of if said Bluetooth transceiver does not support eSCO retransmissions, blocking Bluetooth transmit and receive activity during WiMAX transmit and receive activity.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of maintaining synchronization via corrections to a Bluetooth clock based on a start of frames indication from said WiMAX transceiver.

9. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of said Bluetooth transceiver operating as a master.

10. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of said Bluetooth transceiver initiating a role switch if it was setup as a slave device during link initiation.

11. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of initially scheduling Bluetooth SCO/eSCO transmission slots such that they do not overlap WiMAX listen windows.

12. A method of coexistence between a Bluetooth transceiver and a WiMAX transceiver collocated in a mobile device, said method comprising the steps of:

blocking said Bluetooth transceiver when WiMAX transmit/receive activity is detected; and

permitting an exception for Bluetooth last retry latency sensitive packet transmission which takes precedence over WiMAX transmit/receive activity.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said latency sensitive packet comprises voice data.

14. A method of coexistence between a Bluetooth transceiver and a WiMAX transceiver collocated in a mobile device, said method comprising the steps of:

detecting intent of said Bluetooth transceiver to transmit latency sensitive services traffic; and

if said Bluetooth transceiver does not support transmission retries, blocking WiMAX transceiver transmit/receive activity during transmission of latency sensitive services traffic by said Bluetooth transceiver.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said latency sensitive services traffic comprises voice data.

16. A mobile communications device, comprising:

a Bluetooth transceiver and associated Bluetooth media access control (MAC);

a WiMAX transceiver and associated WiMAX MAC;

coexistence means coupled to said Bluetooth transceiver and said WiMAX transceiver, said coexistence means operative to;

synchronize the time base of said Bluetooth transceiver to WiMAX frames;

block Bluetooth ACL transmissions during WiMAX transmit/receive activity;

switch said WiMAX transceiver to power save mode in response to Bluetooth SCO link setup and to select a listen period and sleep window to be a multiple a basic SCO period;

schedule Bluetooth SCO slots such that they do not overlap with WiMAX listen windows; and

a processor operative to send and receive data to and from said Bluetooth transceiver and said WiMAX transceiver.

17. The mobile communications device according to claim 16, further comprising the step of maintaining synchronization by corrections of a Bluetooth transceiver clock based on a start of frame indication signal generating by said WiMAX transceiver.

18. The mobile communications device according to claim 16, wherein said SCO link comprises latency sensitive voice traffic.

19. The mobile communications device according to claim 16, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is synchronized via a synchronization signal generated by said WiMAX transceiver.

20. The mobile communications device according to claim 16, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is operative to act as a master.

21. The mobile communications device according to claim 16, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is operative to initiate a role switch if it was setup as a slave device during link setup.