POWER SAVING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

• US 20100302979A1
• Filed: 05/28/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: REUNAMÄKI, Jukka
• Application Number:
  US12/473,400
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302979A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0225 using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed to improve power saving in wireless communication, more particularly in the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol. Conventional Bluetooth packets include a preamble used for radio synchronization, an access address used for physical link identification, a protocol data unit (PDU) to carry the data and a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) to ensure correctness of the data in the PDU. When the sending device determines that it does not have any payload data or acknowledgment to previous data to send and yet it wants to keep the communication link alive with the receiving device, the sending device takes the following steps. The sending device uses a predefined access address in the Bluetooth packet, which is different from normal Bluetooth communication. Then the sending device omits including the PDU and the CRC in the packet. At the receiving device, the presence of the predefined access address in the Bluetooth packet indicates to the receiving device to keep the communication link alive when there is no actual payload data traffic between the devices. The predefined access address serves as an indication to the receiving device to keep the connection between the devices active/alive, but to not expect any payload data from the sending device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, at a sending device having a wireless communication link with a receiving device, that information to be sent in an upcoming transmission slot to the receiving device is already known or derivable by the receiving device;

constructing a shortened packet including a packet preamble field and an access address field including an indicium to signal to the receiving device that said information already known or derivable by the receiving device has been omitted in the shortened packet; and

transmitting the shortened packet to the receiving device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicium is a different access address and the shortened packet only contains a preamble and the different access address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing step removes a field that would otherwise have contained a cyclic redundancy code.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicium signals that the receiving device must remain synchronized with sending device to enable it to respond to the sending device.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving at a receiving device a packet from a sending device;

detecting an indicium in the packet indicating that information already known or derivable by the receiving device has been omitted in the packet, and indicating that the receiving device must remain synchronized with sending device; and

remaining synchronized with sending device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicium is a different access address an the packet only contains a preamble and the different access address.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicium indicates that the packet is shortened so that a field that would otherwise have contained a cyclic redundancy code has been removed.

8. The method of claim 5, which further comprises:

responding back to the sending device with a similarly shortened packet containing an indicium indicating that the receiving device has omitted information already known or derivable by the sending device.

9. A device, comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor configured to control the operation of the transceiver to;

determine, at the device having a wireless communication link with another device, that information to be sent in an upcoming transmission slot to the other device is already known or derivable by the other device;

construct a shortened packet including a packet preamble field and an access address field including an indicium to signal to the other device that said information already known or derivable by the other device has been omitted in the shortened packet; and

transmit the shortened packet to the other device.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the indicium is a different access address and the shortened packet only contains a preamble and the different access address.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the constructing step removes a field that would otherwise have contained a cyclic redundancy code.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the indicium signals that the other device must remain synchronized with the first said device to enable it to respond to the first said device.

13. A device, comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor configured to control the operation of the transceiver to;

receive at a device a packet from another device;

detect an indicium in the packet indicating that information already known or derivable by the device has been omitted in the packet, and indicating that the device must remain synchronized with other device; and

remain synchronized with the another device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the indicium is a different access address and the packet only contains a preamble and the different access address.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the indicium indicates that the packet is shortened so that a field that would otherwise have contained a cyclic redundancy code has been removed.

16. The device of claim 13, which further comprises:

said processor configured to control the operation of the transceiver to;

respond back to the another device with a similarly shortened packet containing an indicium indicating that information already known or derivable by the another device has been omitted.

17. A computer readable medium, comprising:

a computer readable medium configured to store program instructions, which when executed by a computer processor, perform the steps of;

determining, at a sending device having a wireless communication link with a receive device, that information to be sent in an upcoming transmission slot to the receive device is already known or derivable by the receive device;

constructing a shortened packet including a packet preamble field providing link synchronization information to the receive device for remaining synchronized with the sending device and an access address field including an indicium to signal to the receive device that said information already known or derivable by the receive device has been omitted in the shortened packet; and

transmitting the shortened packet to the receive device.

18. A computer readable medium, comprising:

a computer readable medium configured to store program instructions, which when executed by a computer processor, perform the steps of;

receiving at a receive device a packet from a sending device;

detecting an indicium in the packet indicating that information already known or derivable by the receive device has been omitted in the packet, and indicating that the receive device must remain synchronized with sending device; and

remaining synchronized with sending device.