MAIN BLUETOOTH CIRCUIT OF MULTI-MEMBER BLUETOOTH DEVICE

• US 20190319685A1
• Filed: 04/11/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
• Original Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
• Inventors: CHEN, Yi-Cheng, HUANG, Kuan-Chung, WANG, Chin-Wen, HSIEH, Pei-Yuan, LIN, Hou Wei
• Granted Patent: US 10,992,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/401 for selecting or indicating operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/309 Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0608 Antenna selection according to transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A main Bluetooth circuit of a multi-member Bluetooth device includes: a Bluetooth communication circuit; a data transmission circuit; and a control circuit arranged to operably conduct bidirectional packet transmission with a remote Bluetooth device through the Bluetooth communication circuit by utilizing a Bluetooth wireless transmission approach, and arranged to operably communicate data with other devices through the data transmission circuit. During the period in which the Bluetooth communication circuit conducts packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device, an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit of the multi-member Bluetooth device sniffs packets transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device. When the control circuit has detected that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit missed packets transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device, the control circuit is further arranged to operably transmit missing packets of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit through the data transmission circuit.

Claims

1. A main Bluetooth circuit (110) of a multi-member Bluetooth device (100), wherein the multi-member Bluetooth device (100) is utilized for communicating data with a remote Bluetooth device (102) and comprises the main Bluetooth circuit (110) and an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120), the main Bluetooth circuit (110) comprising:

a Bluetooth communication circuit (111);

a data transmission circuit (113); and

a control circuit (115) arranged to operably conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) through the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) by utilizing a Bluetooth wireless transmission approach, and arranged to operably communicate data with other devices through the data transmission circuit (113);

wherein when the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) conducts the bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) sniffs packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102); and

when the control circuit (115) has detected that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) has missed packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102), the control circuit (115) is further arranged to operably transmit missing packets of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) through the data transmission circuit (113).

2. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 1, wherein the control circuit (115) is further arranged to operably transmit an acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102) through the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) when a packet transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device (102) is received by the control circuit (115);

wherein when the packet transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device (102) is received by the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120), the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) is arranged to operably transmit a corresponding notification message to the data transmission circuit (113), and does not transmit any acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102);

wherein a timing of that the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) transmits the acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102) is not relevant to whether the notification message is received by the data transmission circuit (113) or not.

3. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, wherein the control circuit (115) is further arranged to operably determine whether the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) missed packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102) according to multiple notification messages transmitted from the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120).

4. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, wherein the control circuit (115) is further arranged to operably instruct the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) to replace the main Bluetooth circuit (110) to conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) when a Bluetooth packet loss rate of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) is lower than a Bluetooth packet loss rate of the main Bluetooth circuit (110).

5. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 4, wherein the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) does not need to ask for a permission from the remote Bluetooth device (102) before replacing the main Bluetooth circuit (110) to conduct the bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102).

6. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 5, wherein during a period in which the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) replaces the main Bluetooth circuit (110) to conduct the bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the control circuit (115) utilizes the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) to sniff packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102).

7. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, wherein the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) is further arranged to operably replace the main Bluetooth circuit (110) to conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) when the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is disabled or disappears, so as to avoid the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) from missing packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102).

8. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, further comprising:

a determining circuit (117) coupled with the control circuit (115) and arranged to operably evaluate a computing loading of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), a remaining power of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), a temperature of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), or an operating environment of the main Bluetooth circuit (110);

wherein the control circuit (115) instructs the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) to replace the main Bluetooth circuit (110) for conducting a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) when the computing loading of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) exceeds a predetermined level, the remaining power of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is below a predetermined level, the temperature of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) exceeds a predetermined temperature, or the operating environment of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) deviates from a predetermined condition.

9. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, further comprising:

a determining circuit (117) coupled with the control circuit (115) and the data transmission circuit (113), and arranged to operably evaluate a computing loading of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), a remaining power of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), a temperature of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), or an operating environment of the main Bluetooth circuit (110), and further arranged to operably receive indication messages regarding a computing loading, a remaining power, a temperature, or an operating environment of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) transmitted from the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120);

wherein the control circuit (115) instructs the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) to replace the main Bluetooth circuit (110) for conducting the bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) when the computing loading of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) exceeds the computing loading of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) for a predetermined degree, the remaining power of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is below the remaining power of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) for a predetermined degree, the temperature of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) exceeds the temperature of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) for a predetermined degree, or the operating environment of the main Bluetooth circuit (110) deviates from corresponding predetermined conditions but the operating environment of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) matches corresponding predetermined conditions.

10. The main Bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 2, wherein during a period in which the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) conducts a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) does not conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102);

while during a period in which the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) conducts a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the Bluetooth communication circuit (111) does not conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102).