COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND BLUETOOTH DEVICE UTILIZING THE COMMUNICATION METHOD

• US 20130040575A1
• Filed: 08/14/2011
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Sun, Juei-Ting
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A communication method for a Bluetooth device in a scatternet which may include several piconets is proposed. The method includes transmitting data to a peer device in the first piconet, determining whether there is any buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet, and switching from the first piconet to the next piconet to transmit data to a peer device in the second piconet according to the determination result.

Claims

1. A communication method for a Bluetooth device in a scatternet including a first piconet and a second piconet, comprising:

transmitting data to a peer device in the first piconet;

determining whether there is any buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet; and

switching from the first piconet to the second piconet to transmit data to a peer device in the second piconet according to the determination result.

2. The communication method of claim 1, further comprising exchanging at least one packet with the peer device in the first piconet before switching to the second piconet to prevent from link connection timeout if there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device.

3. The communication method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging step comprises:

When acting as a master device, sending poll packets regardless of original poll interval (T_poll) until receiving a response if there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the slave.

4. The communication method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging step comprises forcing the Bluetooth device to transmit a poll packet to the peer device when the Bluetooth device acts as a master device.

5. The communication method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging step comprises forcing the Bluetooth device to respond a null packet to the peer device even if the Bluetooth device receives a null packet when acting as a slave device.

6. The communication method of claim 1, wherein the switching step comprises switching from the first piconet to the second piconet when data transmission within the first piconet is finished.

7. The communication method of claim 1, wherein the switching step comprises switching from the first piconet to the second piconet when there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet and at least one packet exchange is completed.

8. The communication method of claim 1, further comprising:

increasing data transmitting throughput to guarantee the packet can be sent to the peer device on time.

9. The communication method of claim 1, further comprising determining a type of the buffered data;

and the switching step further comprising switching from the first piconet to the second piconet according to the determination result and the determined type.

10. A communication method for a Bluetooth device in a scatternet including a first piconet and a second piconet, comprising:

transmitting data to a peer device in the first piconet;

determining whether there is any buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet; and

allocating slots for the first piconet or the second piconet according to the determination result.

11. A communication method for a Bluetooth device, comprising:

increasing data transmitting throughput to guarantee the packet can be sent to the peer device on time.

12. A communication method for a Bluetooth device in a scatternet including a first piconet and a second piconet, comprising:

transceiving data to a peer device in the first piconet;

determining a type of the data to be transceived; and

allocating slots for the first piconet or the second piconet according to the determination result.

13. The communication method of claim 12, wherein the allocating step comprises:

increasing slots for the first piconet when the data to be transceived comprises real-time application packets.

14. A Bluetooth device, comprising:

a radio module, for transmitting data to a peer device in a first piconet; and

a control unit, for determining whether there is buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet, and controlling the radio module to switch to a second piconet to transmit data to a peer device in the second piconet according to the determination result.

15. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein the control unit exchanges at least one packet pair with the peer device in the first piconet before switching to the second piconet.

16. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein when acting as a master device, the Bluetooth device sends poll packets regardless of original poll interval (T_poll) until receiving a response if there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the slave.

17. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein the controller forces the radio module to transmit a poll packet to the peer device when the Bluetooth device acts as a master device.

18. The Bluetooth device of claim 17, wherein the control unit forces the radio module to respond a null packet to the peer device even if the Bluetooth device receives a null packet when acting as a slave device.

19. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein the control unit switches from the first piconet to the second piconet when data transmission within the first piconet is finished.

20. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein the control unit switches from the first piconet to the second piconet when there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the peer device in the first piconet and at least one packet exchange is completed.

21. The Bluetooth device of claim 14, wherein the control unit controls the radio module to increase data transmitting throughput to guarantee the packet can be sent to the peer device on time.

22. A Bluetooth device, when acting as a master device, configured to send poll packets regardless of original poll interval (T_poll) until receiving a response if there is no buffered data to be transmitted to the slave.

23. The Bluetooth device of claim 22, wherein the response comprises a null packet, an LMP packet or an L2CAP packet.

24. A Bluetooth slave device, configured to be forced to respond a null packet to a master device even if receiving a null packet from the master device.