Method and system for bluetooth HID activity prediction for wireless coexistence throughput optimization

• US 8,600,427 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2012
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ibrahim, Brima, Desai, Prasanna
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Minh D
• Application Number:
  US13/525,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20120258667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 533 Days
• Field of Search: 455/522, 455/432.3, 455/433, 455/456.3, 455/502, 455/41.2, 370/311, 370/345, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/522
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/02 Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03541 Mouse/trackball convertible devices, in which the same ball is used to track the 2D relative movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A host device may be enabled to support a plurality of wireless interfaces, wherein some of these interfaces may be utilized to support human interface device (HID) based communication. The host device may be enabled to monitor activity of HID devices based on communications via HID capable wireless interfaces, may predict future use of the HID devices based on the monitoring, and may manage sniff communication that is utilized to track and/or detect activities in the HID devices. The management of the sniff communication may comprise adjusting characteristics of the sniff communication to enable improving throughput of other wireless interfaces available via the host device that may be affected by the sniff communication. The adjustment of the characteristics of sniff communication may comprise adjusting, statically and/or dynamically, length of sniff intervals and/or designating of sniff packets as high priority requests.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

predicting activity of a human interface device that is communicatively coupled to a host device via a host wireless interface, wherein predicting activity of the human interface device is based on monitoring of past activities of the human interface device; and

managing sniff communication by the host device based on said prediction, wherein the sniff communication is used by the host device in at least one of detecting or tracking the activity of the human interface device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sniff communication comprises transmission of sniff packets to the human interface device via the host wireless interface.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the managing the sniff communication comprises:

adjusting at least one of a priority of transmission of the sniff packets, a length of transmission the sniff packets, and an interval between transmissions of the sniff packets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the host wireless interface includes at least one of a wireless personal area network (WPAN) interface and a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the WPAN interface includes a Bluetooth interface.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the WLAN interface includes a WiFi interface or a WIMAX interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the host wireless interface is integrated within the host device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of past activities of the human interface device further includes:

monitoring of past spatial movements of the human interface device, the spatial movements including at least one of distance, speed, velocity and acceleration of the human interface device.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

managing a transmission or a reception via the host wireless interface based on the predicting.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

managing a transmission or a reception via a second wireless interface based on the predicting.

11. A system comprising:

one or more circuits in a host device configured to;

predict activity of a human interface device that is communicatively coupled to the host device via a host wireless interface, wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to predict activity of the human interface device based on monitoring of past activities of the human interface device; and

manage sniff communication by the host device based on said prediction, wherein the sniff communication is used by the host device in at least one of detecting or tracking the activity of the human interface device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the sniff communication comprises transmission of sniff packets to the human interface device via the host wireless interface.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more circuits are configured to manage the sniff communication by being further configured to:

adjust at least one of a priority of transmission of the sniff packets, a length of transmission of the sniff packets, and an interval between transmissions of the sniff packets.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the host wireless interface includes at least one of a wireless personal area network (WPAN) interface and a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the WPAN interface includes a Bluetooth interface.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the WLAN interface includes a WiFi interface or a WiMAX interface.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the host wireless interface is integrated within the host device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more circuits are configured to predict the activity by being further configured to:

predict activity of the human interface device based on monitoring of past activities of the human interface device by monitoring past spatial movements of the human interface device, the spatial movements including at least one of distance, speed, velocity and acceleration of the human interface device.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to:

manage transmission or reception via a second wireless interface based on the predicting.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, execution of which by a computing device cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

predicting activity of a human interface device that is communicatively coupled to a host device via a host wireless interface, wherein predicting activity of the human interface device is based on monitoring of past activities of the human interface device; and

managing sniff communication by the host device based on said prediction, wherein the sniff communication is used by the host device in at least one of detecting or tracking the activity of the human interface device.