Method and apparatus for communicating push-to-talk state to a communication device

• US 8,346,170 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2012
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Preston, John B., Hanna, George S.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRINH, TAN H
• Application Number:
  US13/416,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20120165062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 298 Days
• Field of Search: 455/42.2, 455/41.3, 455/518, 455/519, 455/452.2, 455/513, 455/450, 455/451, 455/575.2, 348/14.09, 348/E07.084, 370/471, 370/472, 375/134, 375/355, 375/240.28
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6066 including a wireless connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks

Abstract

Apparatus, which has a multilayer protocol stack for processing incoming messages, determines PTT state from messages received from a peripheral over a wireless serial communication channel. The apparatus: receives (902), from the peripheral, a sequence of messages comprising a plurality of data messages (e.g., RFCOMM messages), wherein each of the data messages provides an indication of a PTT state for the apparatus, and wherein the sequence of data messages is received over a short range wireless data path for exchanging priority data that comprises a wireless serial communication channel and that is different from a short range wireless data path for exchanging non-priority data. A pattern detector in the apparatus performs (904) a pattern matching process, within the first two layers of the multilayer protocol stack, to determine the PTT state indicated by each of the data messages and sets (906) the apparatus to have the determined PTT states.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a PTT state into a data stream, the method comprising:

at a peripheral device;

generating a first data stream having a first size for sending to a communication device that is wirelessly coupled to the peripheral device;

generating a second data stream having a second size that is larger than the first size by dividing the first data stream into a number of data segments each having a selected byte size;

encoding a PTT state for the communication device into a set of bits in each data segment;

sending the data segments with the encoded PTT state to the communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected byte size of each data segment is one byte.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of bits used for encoding the PTT state comprises one bit in every one byte data segment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of the second data stream is about twice as large as the size of the first data stream.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

at the peripheral device;

generating a null message in the absence of a data stream to send to the communication device;

encoding the PTT state of the communication device into the null message.