Multiple-processor wireless mobile communication device

• US 7,164,904 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2003
• Issued: 01/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Simmons, Sean B., Pattenden, Christopher, Nagy, Thomas C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elcenko; Eric J
• Application Number:
  US10/352,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20030143973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 455/410, 455/412.2, 455/415, 455/424, 455/426.1, 455/88, 455/566, 714/746, 714/749, 370/349, 375/365, 375/366
• US Class Current: 455/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0003 Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/28 the receiver comprising at least one semiconductor device having three or more electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• 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 multiple-processor wireless mobile communication device is disclosed. A wireless mobile communication device includes a first processor with which software applications are configured to operate, a second processor configured to manage wireless communication operations, and a communication link between the first and second processors. A reliable communications protocol is used for communications between the first and second processors to ensure that control data sent from either one of the processors is received by the other processor.

Claims

1. A system of enabling data communications over a wireless network, operable on a mobile device, comprising:

a first data processor configured to be operable with at least one mobile device application;

a second data processor of a preselected data processor type required for operation with the wireless network, configured to manage wireless communication operations with respect to the wireless network for the mobile device; and

a data communication channel between the first data processor and the second data processor, wherein data that is received by or to be sent from the mobile device through the wireless network is exchanged between the first data processor and the second data processor through the data communication channel;

wherein the first data processor and the second data processor acknowledge data received over the data communication channel;

wherein data transmitted over the data communication channel by one of the first and second data processors is retransmitted over the data communication channel by the one of the first and second data processors after a retransmit time unless acknowledgement of the transmitted data is received from the other of the first and second data processors within the retransmit time;

wherein the one of the first and second data processors initiates data communication channel recovery operations when the transmitted data has been retransmitted a predetermined number of times and no acknowledgement of the transmitted data is received from the other of the first and second data processors within the retransmit time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a two-way communication device having voice and data communication capabilities.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is a dual mode communication device having voice and data communication capabilities.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device has data communication capabilities, and wherein the data received by or to be sent from the mobile device include data communication information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device has voice communication capabilities, and wherein the data which is received by or to be sent from the mobile device include voice communication information.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first data processor issues a call end command to the second data processor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless network comprises separate communication networks using separate infrastructure for supporting voice and data communications.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless network comprises a single communication network for supporting voice and data communications.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one mobile device software application is configured to be operable with the first data processor, and wherein the at least one mobile device software application comprises a personal information manager application.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first data processor manages non-network communication functions of the mobile device, and wherein the second data processor manages communications between the mobile device and the wireless network.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device provides for device operation on a processor-specific communication network through utilization of the second data processor while maintaining a native device software platform through utilization of the first data processor.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first data processor is unable to communicate directly with communication protocols utilized on the wireless network.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor-specific communication network requires one or more particular mobile device processors.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first data processor is a different type of processor than the second data processor, and wherein the second data processor has a configuration such that the second data processor is operable with the wireless network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second data processors have serial interfaces, and wherein the data communication channel comprises a serial link between the serial interfaces of the first and second data processors.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first data processor controls the second data processor through the serial interfaces and the serial link, and wherein the control of the second data processor by the first data processor enables network communication functions on the wireless network on which a mobile device having only the first data processor would not normally operate without substantial reconfiguration.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein utilization of the second data processor allows the mobile device to appear to the network as being a network-compatible device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first data processor is a more powerful processor than the second data processor.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the data communication channel facilitates inter-processor control by comprising separate dedicated lines between the first and second data processors.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a single line is used for each control function supported by the wireless communications device.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the data communication channel comprises a shared memory system, and wherein commands written by one of the first data processor and the second data processor into the shared memory system are read out by the other of the first data processor and the second data processor.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the data communication channel comprises a shared inter-processor bus, in which commands and responses are placed on the bus for communication to either the first data processor or the second data processor.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein outgoing data to be sent from the mobile device is stored by the first data processor in a memory device.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein outgoing data to be sent from the mobile device is stored by the second data processor in a memory device.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein data to be sent from the mobile device through the wireless network comprise an e-mail message.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the mobile device comprises a user interface operatively associated with the first data processor, and wherein the e-mail message is composed using the user interface.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the e-mail message is provided by the first data processor to the second data processor via the data communication channel.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein data received by the mobile device over the wireless network comprise an e-mail message.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the second data processor receives data packets transmitted over the wireless network, and wherein the second data processor forwards each received data packet to the first processor through the data communication channel as the data packet is received.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the mobile device comprises a display, and wherein the first data processor processes the received data packets for output to the display.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein data received by the mobile device over the wireless network comprise a text message.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein data received by the mobile device over the wireless network comprise a web page download.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein the second data processor processes data received from the wireless network and provides the processed data to the first data processor through the data communication channel.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the processed data provided to the first data processor comprises at least a portion of the data received from the wireless network.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the processed data provided to the first data processor substantially comprises the data received from the wireless network.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the second data processor performs data transformation operations upon the data received from the wireless network in order to generate the processed data, and wherein the data transformation operations are performed to generate data for use by the first data processor.

37. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a speaker coupled to the first data processor, and wherein data received over the wireless network by the mobile device is output to the speaker.

38. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a speaker coupled to the second data processor, and wherein data received over the wireless network by the mobile device is output to the speaker.

39. The system of claim 1, wherein the second data processor is configured to detect caller identification information for an incoming call and to send the caller identification information to the first data processor via the data communication channel.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the mobile device comprises a display, and wherein the first data processor processes the caller identification information and displays it on the display.

41. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a transceiver for transmitting signals to and receiving signals from the wireless network.

42. The system of claim 1, wherein the first data processor and the second data processor are different types of microprocessors, and wherein the first data processor comprises a device platform microprocessor and the second data processor comprises a network platform microprocessor.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the device platform data processor is associated with one or more components, and wherein the components are selected from the group consisting of:

a device display, a non-volatile memory, a RAM, auxiliary input/output (I/O) devices, a serial port, a keyboard, a serial interface for communication with the network platform microprocessor, a short-range communications subsystem, a speaker, a microphone, and combinations thereof.

44. The system of claim 42, wherein the network platform data processor is associated with one or more components, wherein the components are selected from the group consisting of:

a speaker, a serial interface for communication with the device platform microprocessor, a microphone, a non-volatile memory, a RAM, and combinations thereof.

45. The system of claim 1, wherein utilization of the first data processor and the second data processor on the mobile device allows the at least one mobile device software application configured to be operable with the first data processor to not require modification to be operable with the preselected data processor type which is supported by the wireless network.

46. The system of claim 1, wherein utilization of the first data processor and the second data processor on the mobile device obviates the need to port the at least one mobile device software application to a processor platform which is supported by the wireless network.

47. A system of enabling data communications over a wireless network, operable on a mobile device, comprising:

a first data processor configured to be operable with at least one mobile device software application;

a second data processor of a preselected data processor type required for operation with the wireless network, configured to send and receive data through the wireless network; and

a communication protocol which defines how data is to be exchanged between the first and second data processors,

wherein the communication protocol comprises a first communication protocol to exchange control information between the first data processor and the second data processor and a second communication protocol to handle data received from or to be sent over the wireless network;

wherein the first communication protocol comprises packet sequence numbers and acknowledgements to facilitate reliable transport of packets of control information between the first and second data processors;

wherein a delayed acknowledgement timer is started when a packet is received to reduce number of acknowledgement packet transmissions.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein each packet sequence number is a number assigned to each packet transmitted over a serial link between the first and second data processors.

49. The system of claim 47, wherein a data connection between the first data processor and the second data processor is restarted and the packet sequence number is reinitialized to a value of zero when a configuration control packet is transmitted by either the first data processor or the second data processor.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the configuration control packet conforms to Link Control Protocol (LCP).

51. The system of claim 49, wherein the configuration control packet conforms to IP Control Protocol (TPCP).

52. The system of claim 49, wherein configuration control packets are exchanged between the first data processor and the second data processor, wherein at least one of the exchanged configuration control packets comprises a configure-request packet, and wherein at least one of the exchanged configuration control packets comprise a configure-acknowledge packet.

53. The system of claim 52, wherein the configure-request packet and the configure-acknowledge packet each have a payload length of zero.

54. The system of claim 48, wherein an acknowledgement conforming to the first communication protocol comprises an acknowledgement packet having a field indicative of the packet sequence number of a packet being acknowledged.

55. The system of claim 47, wherein a packet conforming to the first communication protocol comprises one or more flags to indicate a preselected data communication condition.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein one of the flags indicates that a pre-selected action should be performed by a receiving one of the first and second data processors that receives the packet.

57. The system of claim 55, wherein one of the flags indicates that the packet is a packet receipt acknowledgement packet and that a packet sequence number of a packet being acknowledged is present and valid.

58. The system of claim 47, wherein a packet conforming to the first communication protocol comprises a data field and a length field indicating the length of the data field.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein the data field contains the payload of the packet.

60. The system of claim 47, wherein a retransmit timer is started when a packet is sent so that sent packets which have not been acknowledged after a certain period of time are retransmitted by a sending one of the first and second data processors that sent the packet.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein a packet retransmission counter is used by the sending data processor to determine whether a link recovery should be performed.

62. The system of claim 47, wherein application data is transmitted between the first and second data processors via the second communication protocol, and wherein the second communication protocol comprises UDP/IP (User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol).

63. The system of claim 62, wherein the application data comprises user e-mails associated with a data communication software application on the mobile device.

64. The system of claim 62, wherein the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol share a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) inter-processor link between the first data processor and the second data processor.

65. The system of claim 64, wherein packet error checking is handled with respect to communications between the first data processor and the second data processor via a checksum function provided by PPP.

66. The system of claim 64, wherein the packet sequence numbers and packet acknowledgements utilized by the first communication protocol facilitate verification of receipt of packets with respect to data communications between the first data processor and the second data processor.

67. The system of claim 66, wherein the first communication protocol comprises a sync byte to prevent the loss of framing.

68. A method of reliably exchanging data packets between a sending data processor and a receiving data processor in a multiple-processor mobile communication device, one of the sending data processor and the receiving data processor comprising a first processor with which software applications on the mobile communication device are configured to operate and the other of the sending data processor and the receiving data processor comprising a second data processor configured for sending and receiving data in a wireless communication network, the method comprising the steps of:

at the sending data processor;

transmitting a first data packet to the receiving data processor;

determining whether an acknowledgement of the first data packet is received from the receiving data processor within a first predetermined period of time after the step of transmitting the first data packet; and

retransmitting the first data packet to the receiving data processor where an acknowledgement of the first data packet is not received from the receiving data processor within the first predetermined period of time; and

at the receiving data processor;

receiving the first data packet;

determining whether the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor within a second predetermined period of time after the first data packet is received;

inserting an acknowledgement of the first data packet into the second packet where the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor within the second predetermined period of time; and

where the receiving data processor does not have a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor within the second predetermined period of time,

generating an acknowledgement packet comprising an acknowledgement of the first data packet when the second predetermined period of time elapses; and

transmitting the acknowledgement packet from the receiving data processor to the sending data processor.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein the step of determining whether an acknowledgement of the first data packet is received from the receiving data processor within a first predetermined period of time after the step of transmitting the first data packet comprises the steps of:

setting a retransmit timer to expire when the first predetermined period of time elapses; and

determining whether an acknowledgement of the first data packet is received from the receiving data processor before the retransmit timer expires.

70. The method of claim 69, further comprising the step of:

stopping the retransmit timer where an acknowledgement of the first data packet is received from the receiving data processor before the retransmit timer expires.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the step of retransmitting the first data packet comprises the steps of:

detecting expiry of the retransmit timer; and

retransmitting the first data packet to the receiving data packet in response to the step of detecting.

72. The method of claim 68, wherein the first data packet comprises a sequence number, wherein the second data packet comprises an acknowledgement flag and an acknowledgement number, and wherein the step of inserting an acknowledgement of the first data packet into the second data packet comprises the steps of setting the acknowledgement flag and inserting the sequence number as the acknowledgement number.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the acknowledgement packet comprises an acknowledgement flag and the sequence number.

74. The method of claim 68, wherein the step of determining whether the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor within a second predetermined period of time after the first data packet is received comprises the steps of:

setting a delayed acknowledgement timer to expire when the second predetermined period of time elapses; and

determining whether the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor before the delayed acknowledgement timer expires.

75. The method of claim 74, further comprising the step of:

stopping the delayed acknowledgement timer where the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the sending data processor before the delayed acknowledgement timer expires.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the step of generating an acknowledgement packet comprises the steps of:

detecting expiry of the delayed timer; and

generating the acknowledgement packet in response to the step of detecting.

77. The method of claim 68, wherein the step of determining whether an acknowledgement of the first data packet is received from the receiving data processor within a first predetermined period of time and the step of retransmitting the first data packet to the receiving data processor where an acknowledgement of the first data packet is not received from the receiving data processor within the first predetermined period of time are repeated a predetermined number of times.

78. The method of claim 77, further comprising the steps of:

configuring a connection between the sending data processor and the receiving data processor before the step of transmitting the first data packet; and

repeating the step of configuring when the step of retransmitting has been repeated the predetermined number of times.

79. The method of claim 68, wherein the first data packet comprises a sequence number, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the receiving data processor;

determining whether a packet having the sequence number was previously received; and

dropping the first data packet where a packet having the sequence number was previously received.

80. The method of claim 68, wherein the first data packet further comprises a data field and a length field indicating the length of the data field, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the receiving data processor;

determining whether the data field has a length as indicated in the length field;

dropping the first data packet where the data field does not have a length as indicated in the length field; and

performing the steps of determining whether the receiving data processor has a second data packet to transmit to the second data processor, inserting an acknowledgement of the first data packet into the second data packet, generating an acknowledgement packet, and transmitting the acknowledgement packet only if the data field has a length as indicated in the length field.