AUXILIARY BLUETOOTH CIRCUIT OF MULTI-MEMBER BLUETOOTH DEVICE

• US 20190320345A1
• 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 10,652,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point
• 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 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A auxiliary Bluetooth circuit of a multi-member Bluetooth device includes: a Bluetooth communication circuit; a data transmission circuit; and a control circuit arranged to operably control the data transmission circuit to communicate data with a main Bluetooth circuit of the multi-member Bluetooth device, and arranged to utilize the Bluetooth communication circuit to sniff packets transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device during the period in which the main Bluetooth circuit conducts packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device. When the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit missed packets transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device, the data transmission circuit is further arranged to operably receive the missed packets from the main Bluetooth circuit.

Claims

1. An auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) 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 auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) and a main Bluetooth circuit (110), the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) comprising:

a Bluetooth communication circuit (121);

a data transmission circuit (123); and

a control circuit (125) arranged to operably control the data transmission circuit (123) to communicate data with the main Bluetooth circuit (110), and arranged to operably utilize the Bluetooth communication circuit (121) to sniff packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102) when the main Bluetooth circuit (110) conducts a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102);

wherein the data transmission circuit (123) is further arranged to operably receive missing packets of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) from the main Bluetooth circuit (110) when the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) has missed packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102).

2. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 1, wherein the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is further arranged to operably transmit an acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102) when a packet transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device (102) is received by the main Bluetooth circuit (110);

wherein when the packet transmitted from the remote Bluetooth device (102) is received by the control circuit (125), the control circuit (125) is arranged to operably transmit a corresponding notification message to the main Bluetooth circuit (110) through the data transmission circuit (123), and does not transmit any acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102) through the Bluetooth communication circuit (121);

wherein a timing of that the main Bluetooth circuit (110) transmits the acknowledge message to the remote Bluetooth device (102) is not relevant to whether the data transmission circuit (123) transmits the notification message to the main Bluetooth circuit (110) or not.

3. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 2, wherein the control circuit (125) is further arranged to operably control the Bluetooth communication circuit (121) 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), and a handover instruction transmitted from the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is received by the control circuit (125).

4. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 3, 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).

5. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 4, 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 main Bluetooth circuit (110) sniffs packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102).

6. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 2, wherein the control circuit (125) is further arranged to operably conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102) through the Bluetooth communication circuit (121) when the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is disabled or disappears, so as to avoid the control circuit (125) from missing packets issued from the remote Bluetooth device (102).

7. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 6, wherein the control circuit (125) is further arranged to operably detect whether the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is disabled or disappears by evaluating a situation of data communication between the main Bluetooth circuit (110) and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120).

8. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 7, wherein the control circuit (125) is further arranged to operably determine that the main Bluetooth circuit (110) is disabled or disappears if the main Bluetooth circuit (110) does not interact with the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) more than a predetermined time, or a frequency of that the main Bluetooth circuit (110) does not replenish missing packets to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) is more than a predetermined threshold.

9. The auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 2, wherein during a period in which the main Bluetooth circuit (110) conducts a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the Bluetooth communication circuit (121) does not conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102);

while during a period in which the Bluetooth communication circuit (121) conducts a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102), the main Bluetooth circuit (110) does not conduct a bidirectional packet transmission with the remote Bluetooth device (102).