Apparatus for and method of Bluetooth and WiMAX coexistence in a mobile handset

• US 7,929,912 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Sherman, Itay
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung; Nay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Perez; Angelica M
• Application Number:
  US11/695,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20070232358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/556.1, 455/560, 455/1, 370/328, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3805 with built-in auxiliary receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 for collaboration of different radio technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A novel and useful apparatus for and method of Bluetooth and WiMAX coexistence. The invention provides a system approach to achieving coexistence between Bluetooth and WiMAX transceivers collocated in a mobile terminal. The coexistence mechanism of the present invention is particularly suited to operation of WiMAX in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz frequency bands. In operation, the coexistence mechanism of the present invention utilizes multiple algorithms depending on the capabilities of the Bluetooth peer and the power save support level of the WiMAX base station. In the example embodiment presented herein, the coexistence mechanism is implemented in the MAC layer of the Bluetooth and WiMAX radio modules.

Claims

1. A mobile communications device, comprising:

a Bluetooth transceiver and associated Bluetooth media access control (MAC);

a WiMAX transceiver and associated WiMAX MAC;

coexistence means coupled to said Bluetooth transceiver and said WiMAX transceiver, said coexistence means operative to;

synchronize the time base of said Bluetooth transceiver to WiMAX frames;

block Bluetooth ACL transmissions during WiMAX transmit/receive activity;

switch said WiMAX transceiver to power save mode in response to Bluetooth SCO link setup and to select a listen period and sleep window to be a multiple a basic SCO period;

schedule Bluetooth SCO slots such that they do not overlap with WiMAX listen windows; and

a processor operative to send and receive data to and from said Bluetooth transceiver and said WiMAX transceiver.

2. The mobile communications device according to claim 1, further comprising the step of maintaining synchronization by corrections of a Bluetooth transceiver clock based on a start of frame indication signal generating by said WiMAX transceiver.

3. The mobile communications device according to claim 1, wherein said SCO link comprises latency sensitive voice traffic.

4. The mobile communications device according to claim 1, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is synchronized via a synchronization signal generated by said WiMAX transceiver.

5. The mobile communications device according to claim 1, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is operative to act as a master.

6. The mobile communications device according to claim 1, wherein said Bluetooth transceiver is operative to initiate a role switch if it was setup as a slave device during link setup.