Resolving an application service change in a system using bluetooth

• US 8,515,350 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2011
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kinneberg, Steven J., Profit, Jack H., Burns, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Wendell, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US13/083,890
• Publication Number:
  US 20120258664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 455/39, 455/41.2, 455/507, 455/552.1, 370/324
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Peer-to-peer communication is established between applications in different Bluetooth enabled devices in a Bluetooth network by using Bluetooth protocol messages to discover peer-to-peer bus daemons. In the Bluetooth enabled computing devices, an initiating peer-to-peer bus daemon initiating a connection from a first device to a second device discovers an accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon at the second device. After the discovery of the accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon by the initiating peer-to-peer bus daemon, the initiating peer-to-peer bus daemon sends SDP protocol messages to find a named application available through the accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon. An extended inquiry response with a unique identifier is created and sent by the accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon to the initiating peer-to-peer bus daemon. This unique identifier contains a revision count and the revision count indicates the current version of an application name list for application services available at the accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a Bluetooth transceiver configured to communicate with other Bluetooth-enabled devices;

at least one application;

a peer-to-peer bus daemon configured to communicate with the at least one application and exchange messages with other peer-to-peer bus daemons in the other Bluetooth-enabled devices via the Bluetooth transceiver;

a version test module configured to compare a current version number of an application name list that is currently available from a particular remote peer-to-peer bus daemon residing on a particular remote Bluetooth-enabled device with a locally-stored cached version number received from the particular remote peer-to-peer bus daemon during a previous peer-to-peer communication;

a service discovery module configured to exchange, responsive to the current version number being different than the cached version number, Bluetooth SDP messages with the particular remote Bluetooth-enabled device to discover application services available on the particular remote Bluetooth-enabled device;

a same-name test module configured to detect a name match between the at least one application and applications available at the particular remote Bluetooth-enabled device; and

an establish module configured to open peer-to-peer communications between the at least one application and another application on the particular remote Bluetooth-enabled device that has a same name as the at least one application when the same-name test module detects a name match or when the current version number and the cached version number are the same.

2. The communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the service discovery module does not exchange Bluetooth SDP messages when the current version number is the same as the cached version number.

3. The communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to operate as a client and a sever application.

4. The communication apparatus of claim 3, wherein the application is selected from the group consisting of social, utility, and gaming applications.

5. The communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer bus daemon is configured to send a FOUND NAME message to the application if a same-name match is detected by the same-name test module.

6. A communication apparatus comprising:

means for discovering peer-to-peer bus daemons in other Bluetooth-enabled devices;

means for discovering applications at the other Bluetooth-enabled devices that are available through their peer-to-peer bus daemons without exchanging Bluetooth service discovery protocol (SDP) messages;

means for detecting a name match between same-named applications available through the peer-to-peer bus daemons in the other Bluetooth-enabled devices; and

means for opening peer-to-peer communications between same-named applications through peer-to-peer bus daemons on separate Bluetooth enabled computing systems.

7. The communication apparatus of claim 6 wherein the peer-to-peer bus daemons in the other Bluetooth-enabled devices are marked as Bluetooth discoverable and the communication apparatus includes:

means for detecting the peer-to-peer bus daemons marked as Bluetooth discoverable and identifying the peer-to-peer bus daemons marked as Bluetooth discoverable with a universal unique identifier (UUID); and

means for receiving an extended inquiry response containing a particular UUID for a particular accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon, the particular UUID including a current revision count indicating the current version of a name list of applications available through the particular accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon.

8. The communication apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

means for detecting whether the current revision count received in the particular UUID is the same as a previously stored revision count for the particular accepting peer-to-peer bus daemon; and

the means for discovering applications includes means for exchanging Bluetooth SDP messages if the current revision count does not match the previously stored revision count.

9. The communication apparatus of claim 8 wherein said means for opening peer-to-peer communications between same-named applications includes means for opening peer-to-peer communications if the current revision count does not match the previously stored revision count.

10. A method for discovering application services available on Bluetooth enabled devices, the method comprising:

receiving a Bluetooth message at an initiating Bluetooth enabled device from an accepting Bluetooth enabled device to discover an accepting-bus-daemon on the accepting Bluetooth enabled device, the Bluetooth message including a current universal unique identifier (UUID) identifying the accepting-bus-daemon;

comparing the current UUID with a previous UUID that was previously sent by the accepting-bus-daemon to detect if the current UUID is the same as the previous UUID;

exchanging Bluetooth SDP queries with the accepting Bluetooth enabled device to discover application services available through the accepting-bus-daemon if the current UUID is not the same as the previous UUID;

detecting a name match between same-named applications on the initiating Bluetooth enabled device and the accepting Bluetooth enabled device; and

opening peer-to-peer communications between the same-named applications on the initiating Bluetooth enabled device and the accepting Bluetooth enabled device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein receiving the Bluetooth message includes:

receiving the UUID in an extended inquiry response, the UUID containing a current revision count indicating a current version of a name list of applications available through the accepting-bus-daemon.

12. The method of claim 11 including:

detecting whether the current revision count in the UUID is the same as a previously stored revision count that was previously stored at the initiating Bluetooth enabled device;

if the current revision count is not the same as the previously stored revision count, initializing an SDP discovery process with SDP queries to discover application services available at the accepting-bus-daemon.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein if the current revision count is the same as the previously stored revision count, re-opening peer-to-peer communication with same-named applications available at the accepting-bus-daemon while bypassing the SDP discovery process.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the UUID includes one hundred twenty eight bits with ninety-six bits being a base number identifying the accepting-bus-daemon and thirty two bits being the current revision count.

15. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, encoded with processor readable instructions to perform a method for discovering application services available on Bluetooth enabled devices, the method comprising:

receiving a Bluetooth message at an initiating Bluetooth enabled device from an accepting Bluetooth enabled device to discover an accepting-bus-daemon on the accepting Bluetooth enabled device, the Bluetooth message including a current universal unique identifier (UUID) identifying the accepting-bus-daemon;

comparing the current UUID with a previous UUID that was previously sent by the accepting-bus-daemon to detect if the current UUID is the same as the previous UUID;

exchanging Bluetooth SDP queries with the accepting Bluetooth enabled device to discover application services available through the accepting-bus-daemon if the current UUID is not the same as the previous UUID;

detecting a name match between same-named applications on the initiating Bluetooth enabled device and the accepting Bluetooth enabled device; and

opening peer-to-peer communications between the same-named applications on the initiating Bluetooth enabled device and the accepting Bluetooth enabled device.

16. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein receiving the Bluetooth message includes:

receiving the UUID in an extended inquiry response, the UUID containing a current revision count indicating a current version of a name list of applications available through the accepting-bus-daemon.

17. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the method including:

detecting whether the current revision count in the UUID is the same as a previously stored revision count that was previously stored at the initiating Bluetooth enabled device;

if the current revision count is not the same as the previously stored revision count, initializing an SDP discovery process with SDP queries to discover application services available at the accepting-bus-daemon.

18. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 17, the method including re-opening peer-to-peer communication with same-named applications available at the accepting-bus-daemon while bypassing the SDP discovery process if the current revision count is the same as the previously stored revision count.

19. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the UUID includes one hundred twenty eight bits with ninety-six bits being a base number identifying the accepting-bus-daemon and thirty two bits being the current revision count.