Wireless apparatus having a transceiver equipped to support multiple wireless communication protocols

• US 6,990,082 B1
• Filed: 11/08/1999
• Issued: 01/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Zehavi, Ephraim, Nevo, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi
• Assistant Examiner(s): JONES, PRENELL P
• Application Number:
  US09/436,458
• Time in Patent Office: 2,269 Days
• Field of Search: 370/280, 370/337, 370314-318, 370331-345, 370463-466, 370/470, 370480-487, 370310-328, 370/506, 370/442, 370/351, 370/401, 370/522, 370/347, 370/277, 370/478, 370/434, 370/395, 370/445, 370/378, 370/353, 370/414, 455/419, 455/418, 455/422, 455423-430, 455/234.1, 455/109, 455/250.1, 455/76, 455/14, 455/504, 455/463, 455/435.2, 455/438, 455/437, 455/522, 455/78.86, 455/266, 455/553.1, 455/552.1, 709219-221, 709/246, 709/239, 709/224, 709/238, 701/213, 375146-152, 375/308, 375/373, 375/347, 375/322, 375/346, 375/342, 375260-278, 345/157, 345/184, 348/552
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A wireless device is provided with a wireless transceiver having a joint signal transmit/receive section, and a number of signal up/down conversion sections to transmit and receive signals wirelessly in accordance with a first and a second protocol. The wireless device is further provided with a controller/signal processing section to control and perform, in a coordinated manner, the transmit and receive operations in accordance with the two protocols. In various embodiments, the wireless device is further provided with a processor programmed to implement a time sharing schedule to facilitate the coordinated control and performance of the transmit and receive operations. In some of these embodiments, the processor is further programmed to monitor the transmit and receive workloads of the two protocols and adaptively perform the coordinated control and signal processing, based at least in part on the observed workloads. In various embodiments, the protocols may be selected pairs of Bluetooth, 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, Home RF and the like. The wireless device may also be used as a master device or a gateway device of two wireless networks.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless transceiver having a joint signal transmit/receive section, and a plurality of signal up/down conversion sections sharing said joint signal transmit/receive section, to selectively transmit and receive signals in accordance with a first and a second protocol, in a coordinated manner, to and from network devices of a first and a second wireless network; and

a controller coupled to the wireless transceiver to control said wireless transceiver to perform said transmits and receives in said coordinated manner, wherein the controller, in a coordinated manner, selectively couples a first signal up conversion section to the joint signal transmit/receive section to perform said transmit of signals to network device(s) of said first wireless network, while keeping a second signal up conversion section decoupled from the joint signal transmit/receive section preventing signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of said second wireless network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller further, in a coordinated manner, selectively couples a second signal up conversion section to the joint signal transmit/receive section to perform said transmit of signals to network device(s) of said second wireless network, while keeping the first signal up conversion section de-coupled from the joint signal transmit/receive section preventing signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of said first wireless network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller, in a coordinated manner, selectively de-couples both a first and a second signal up conversion section from the joint signal transmit/receive section to prevent signals from being transmitted to network devices of said first and second networks.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a signal processing section coupled to said wireless transceiver and said controller to process data for transmission by said wireless transceiver to said network devices of said wireless networks, and to process signals received by said wireless transceiver from said network devices of said wireless networks, in a coordinated manner, under the control of said controller.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the controller enables the signal processing section to simultaneously process signals received from network devices of said wireless networks, and down converted by signal down conversion sections of the wireless transceiver, and stops the signal processing section from processing signals output by said down conversion sections of the wireless transceiver.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the wireless transceiver to perform said transmits and receives in a coordinated manner, in accordance with a time sharing schedule.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the controller comprises a processor adapted to control the wireless transceiver in a first transmit mode for the first protocol, a second transmit mode for the second protocol, and a joint receive mode for both protocols, in accordance with the time sharing schedule.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor is further adapted to adaptively manage the time sharing schedule.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further adapted to adaptively manage the time sharing schedule based at least in part on transmit or receive workloads of said first and second wireless networks.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further adapted to monitor and track transmit or receive workloads of said first and second wireless networks.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first and second protocol are two protocols selected from a group consisting of Bluetooth, 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and Home RF.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the joint signal transmit/receive section is a joint RF transmit/receive section, and the plurality of signal up/down conversion pairs are IF up/down conversion sections.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller further comprises a first and a second transmit signal processing section to processing transmit data for transmission in accordance with the first and second protocols, and the controller, in a coordinated manner, selectively couples a signal up conversion section to the first transmit signal processing section to perform said transmit of signals to network device(s) of said first wireless network, while keeping the second transmit signal processing section de-coupled from the signal up conversion section, preventing signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of said second wireless network.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the controller further, in a coordinated manner, selectively couples the signal up conversion section to the second transmit signal processing section to perform said transmit of signals to network device(s) of said second wireless network, while keeping the signal up conversion section decoupled from the first transmit signal processing section, preventing signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of said first wireless network.

15. In an apparatus having a wireless transceiver including a joint signal transmit/receive section, and a plurality of signal up/down conversion sections sharing the joint signal transmit/receive section, a method of operation comprising:

(a) coupling a first signal up conversion section to the joint signal transmit/receive section to perform transmit of signals to network device(s) of a first wireless network in accordance with a first protocol, while keeping a second signal up conversion section de-coupled from the joint signal transmit/receive section to prevent signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of a second wireless network in accordance with a second protocol; and

(b) coupling the second signal up conversion section to the joint signal transmit/receive section to perform transmit of signals to network device(s) of the second wireless network in accordance with the second protocol, while keeping the first signal up conversion section de-coupled from the joint signal transmit/receive section to prevent signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of the first wireless network in accordance with the first protocol.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a signal processing section coupled to said wireless transceiver to process data for transmission by said wireless transceiver to said network devices of said wireless networks, and to process signals received by said wireless transceiver from said network devices of said wireless networks, in a coordinated manner; and

the method further comprises enabling the signal processing section to simultaneously process signals received from said network devices of said wireless networks, and down converted by signal down conversion sections of the wireless transceiver, and stops the signal processing section from processing signals output by said down conversion sections of the wireless transceiver.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises (c) adjusting performance repetition of (a) and (b).

18. The method of claim 17, wherein (c) is performed adaptively based at least in part on transmit or receive workloads of the first and second networks.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises (d) monitoring transmit or receive workloads of said first and second networks.

20. In an apparatus having a wireless transceiver including a plurality of signal up/down conversion sections, and a controlling section having a first and a second transmit signal processing section, a method of operation comprising:

(a) coupling a signal up conversion section to a first transmit signal processing section to perform transmit of signals to network device(s) of a first wireless network in accordance with a first protocol, while keeping the signal up conversion section de-coupled from a second transmit signal processing section to prevent signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of a second wireless network in accordance with a second protocol; and

(b) coupling the signal up conversion section to the second transmit signal processing section to perform transmit of signals to network device(s) of the second wireless network in accordance with the second protocol, while keeping the signal up conversion section de-coupled from the first transmit signal processing section to prevent signals from being transmitted to network device(s) of the first wireless network in accordance with the first protocol.