Method and Apparatus for Reduced Power Consumption When Operating as a Bluetooth Low Energy Device

• US 20120220351A1
• Filed: 07/23/2009
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Kerai, Kanji, Dent, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,759 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/574
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An apparatus, a method and a computer program product is disclosed for a Bluetooth communication transceiver. The Bluetooth communication transceiver is configured as a Bluetooth low energy device performing timing measurements which are to be used for power saving. Based at least in part on the timing measurements, receive activation timings of the Bluetooth communication transceiver are adjusted. Further, a sleep clock of the apparatus may be used for calibration of the receive activation timings.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a Bluetooth communication transceiver configured as a Bluetooth low energy device;

a timer configured to perform at least one timing measurement for power saving; and

a processor configured to adjust a receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver based at least in part on the at least one timing measurement.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the timer is configured to perform the at least one timing measurement for a connection interval of the Bluetooth communication transceiver, and

wherein the processor is further configured to adjust a start time of the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to use a timing of a unique access address for the Bluetooth communication transceiver as the start time of the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to detect a logical link identifier field in a header of a received packet by the Bluetooth communication transceiver, and

wherein the processor is further configured to adjust an end time of the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver depending on a content of the logical link identifier field.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to detect if a connection is of a fixed data length such that a cyclic redundancy check value is known, and wherein the processor is further configured to shift a start time of the receive activation window timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver to a timing just before reception of the expected cyclic redundancy check value.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to determine whether a distance to a communicating device is within a predetermined range, and wherein the processor is further configured to adjust the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver by reducing the number of times that the Bluetooth communications transceiver is activated during a given time period.

7. A method, comprising:

performing, at a Bluetooth communication transceiver configured as a Bluetooth low energy device, at least one timing measurement for power saving; and

adjusting a receive timing based at least in part on the at least one timing measurement.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the at least one timing measurement is a measurement of a connection interval, further comprising

adjusting a start time of the receive timing for at least one subsequent interval.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein a timing of a unique access address is used as the start time of the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver.

10. The method according to claim 7 further comprising detecting a logical link identifier field in a header of a received packet, and

adjusting an end time of the receive timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver depending on a content of the logical link identifier field.

11. The method according to claim 7 further comprising detecting if a connection is of a fixed data length such that a cyclic redundancy check value is known, and

shifting a start time of the receive activation window timing of the Bluetooth communication transceiver to a timing just before reception of the expected cyclic redundancy check value.

12. A Bluetooth low energy apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to

decide on which receive activation of subsequent transmissions when multiple time savings can be made;

apply a method described in claims 7 to 11 based on at least two measured timings of received transmissions; and

adjusting a window of the receive activation based at least in part on the at least two of the measured timings.

13. An apparatus, comprising

at least one processor;

and

at least one memory including computer program code,

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

perform, at a Bluetooth communication transceiver configured as a Bluetooth low energy device, at least one timing measurement for power saving; and

adjust a receive timing based at least in part on the at least one timing measurement.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising:

code for performing, at a Bluetooth communication transceiver configured as a Bluetooth low energy device, at least one timing measurement for power saving; and

code for adjusting a receive timing based at least in part on the at least one timing measurement.

15. A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform:

performing, at a Bluetooth communication transceiver configured as a Bluetooth low energy device, at least one timing measurement for power saving; and

adjusting a receive timing based at least in part on the at least one timing measurement.