SHARING AN ANTENNA BETWEEN LTE-U AND WLAN

• US 20170033829A1
• Filed: 06/28/2016
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Dhamdhere, Deepak, Modi, Viral, Fan, Hong, Subramanian, Pattabiraman, HomChaudhuri, Sandip, Yenganti, Pradeep Kumar, Ranganath, Ashok, Burra, Gangadhar
• Granted Patent: US 9,893,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/401 for selecting or indicating operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0041 Frequency-non-contiguous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

In a particular aspect, a method includes receiving, at a long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry of wireless device from a wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry of the wireless device while the LTE circuitry has control of at least one antenna of the wireless device, a request for control of the at least one antenna. Communications by the LTE circuitry using the at least one antenna corresponds to a first frequency band, communications by the WLAN circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a second frequency band, and the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band. The method further includes sending a response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on data included in the request.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, the method comprising:

receiving, at long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry of a wireless device from wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry of the wireless device while the LTE circuitry has control of at least one antenna of the wireless device, a request for control of the at least one antenna, wherein communications by the LTE circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a first frequency band, wherein communications by the WLAN circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a second frequency band, and wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band; and

sending a response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on data included in the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data includes a criticality bit indicating whether an operation corresponding to the request is critical, and wherein the data includes a duration value that indicates a duration of performance of the operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the response based on the data included in the request includes sending an acknowledgement (ACK) in response to the criticality bit having a first value.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising releasing control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry in response to the criticality bit having the first value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein releasing control of the at least one antenna includes causing a switch to couple the WLAN circuitry to the at least one antenna.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein releasing control of the at least one antenna includes disabling data transmission from the LTE circuitry to the at least one antenna.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a release message at the LTE circuitry from the WLAN circuitry after performance of the operation at the WLAN circuitry is complete;

regaining control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry after receiving the release message; and

sending or receiving at least one data transmission at the LTE circuitry via the at least one antenna in response to regaining control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising releasing control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry in response to the criticality bit having a second value and the duration value failing to exceed an estimated duration of time before a next expected operation at the LTE circuitry.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the response comprises an acknowledgement (ACK).

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising maintaining control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry in response to the criticality bit having a second value and the duration value exceeding an estimated duration of time before a next expected operation at the LTE circuitry.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the response comprises a negative acknowledgement (NACK).

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, at the LTE circuitry from the WLAN circuitry, a second request for control of the at least one antenna; and

sending a second response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on second data included in the second request.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

releasing control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry based on a second duration value included in the second data, wherein the second response comprises a second acknowledgement (ACK).

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising maintaining control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry based on a second duration value included in the second data, wherein the second response comprises a second negative acknowledgement (NACK).

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the second frequency band comprises a 5 gigahertz (GHz) channel.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the data includes a count value indicating a periodicity of the request, wherein the data includes a criticality bit indicating whether an operation corresponding to the request is critical, and wherein the data includes a duration value that indicates a duration of performance of the operation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

maintaining a timer in response to receiving the request;

receiving a release message from the WLAN circuitry after performance of the operation at the WLAN circuitry is complete;

regaining control of the at least one antenna in response to receiving the release message; and

in response to the timer reaching a value matching the count value, releasing control of the at least one antenna and resetting the timer.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a termination message at the LTE circuitry from the WLAN circuitry; and

terminating operation of the timer in response to the termination message.

19. An apparatus comprising:

at least one antenna;

long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry configured to be coupled to the at least one antenna and configured to communicate via a first frequency band;

wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry configured to be coupled to the at least one antenna and to communicate via a second frequency band, wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band; and

an interface configured to enable communications between the LTE circuitry and the WLAN circuitry, wherein the communications include a response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on data included in a request from the WLAN circuitry for control of the at least one antenna.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the LTE circuitry comprises LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) circuitry configured to perform wireless communications via a 5 GHz channel.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the LTE circuitry is further configured to release control of the at least one antenna at the LTE circuitry in response to a criticality bit of the request having a first value indicating that an operation corresponding to the request is critical.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising a switch configured to selectively couple the at least one antenna to the WLAN circuitry or to the LTE circuitry.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the LTE circuitry is configured to release control of the at least one antenna by causing the switch to couple the at least one antenna to the WLAN circuitry.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the LTE circuitry is configured to regain control of the at least one antenna by causing the switch to couple the at least one antenna to the LTE circuitry.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the interface comprises a shared memory interface, a wireless coexistence interface 2 (WCI-2), a general purpose input-output (GPIO) interface, or a bus.

26. An apparatus comprising:

means for performing long term evolution (LTE) communications via at least one antenna and via a first frequency band;

means for performing wireless local area network (WLAN) communications via the at least one antenna and via a second frequency band, wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band; and

means for sending a response to the means for performing WLAN communications based on data included in a request received from the means for performing WLAN communications while the means for performing LTE communications has control of the at least one antenna, wherein the request is for control of the at least one antenna.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the second frequency band comprises a 5 gigahertz (GHz) channel, and wherein the means for performing LTE communications is configured to perform LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) communications via at least a portion of the 5 GHz channel.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising means for sharing messages between the means for performing WLAN communications and the means for performing LTE communications.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive, at a long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry of a wireless device from a wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry of the wireless device while the LTE circuitry has control of at least one antenna of the wireless device, a request for control of the at least one antenna, wherein communications by the LTE circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a first frequency band, wherein communications by the WLAN circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a second frequency band, and wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band; and

send a response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on data included in the request.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the second frequency band comprises a 5 gigahertz (GHz) channel, and wherein the LTE circuitry comprises LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) circuitry configured to perform wireless communications via at least a portion of the 5 GHz channel.