Methods and apparatus for mitigating interference in aggressive form factor designs

• US 8,995,553 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Camille, Cheung, David, Chen, Hsin-Yao, Giles, Michael J., Zimmermann, Christopher B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Torres, Juan A
• Application Number:
  US13/802,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20130329821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 748 Days
• Field of Search: 375/267
• US Class Current: 375/267
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0691 using subgroups of transmit antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 for collaboration of different radio technologies
• 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

Methods and apparatus for mitigation of radio interference between two or more wireless concurrently operating interfaces in a wireless device having an aggressive form factor. In one embodiment, the interfaces are used for different tasks (e.g., WLAN for data and PAN for human interface devices), and the device includes logic configured to evaluate the priority of the tasks and adjust the operation of one or more of the interfaces accordingly.

Claims

1. A wireless enabled user device comprising:

a first wireless interface comprising at least a time shared antenna with a second wireless interface, the first wireless interface operative in a first frequency band;

the second wireless interface disposed proximate the first wireless interface within the wireless enabled user device and operative in a substantially overlapping frequency band with the first frequency band, the second wireless interface comprising a plurality of antennas; and

logic in communication with at least one of the first and second wireless interfaces, the logic configured to;

determine at least one priority of concurrent first and second tasks to be performed by the first and second wireless interfaces, respectively;

adjust operation of the time shared antenna based on the at least one determined priority so as to achieve at least one of;

(i) mitigated radio interference; and

/or (ii) enhanced data throughput;

allocate one or more tasks of the second wireless interface to be handled by particular ones of the plurality of antennas based at least in part on the adjusted operation; and

assign the first wireless interface to operate at a particular channel on the time shared antenna when the second wireless interface is operating at a particular frequency on at least one of the plurality of antennas.

2. The user device of claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the operation is based at least in part on a first priority associated with the first wireless interface.

3. The user device of claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the operation comprises a first assignment of a first one of the plurality of antennas of the first interface for completion of the first task.

4. The user device of claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the operation comprises a delay in completion of the first task.

5. The user device of claim 1, wherein the determined at least one priority is based on a static priority scheme.

6. The user device of claim 1, wherein the determined at least one priority is based at least in part on user input.

7. The user device of claim 1, wherein the determined at least one priority comprises a first priority level associated with the first task and a second priority level associated with the second task.

8. The user device of claim 2, wherein the first priority associated with the first wireless interface is determined in response to a query from the first wireless interface.

9. The user device of claim 3, wherein the adjustment of the operation further comprises a second assignment of the time shared antenna to the second wireless interface for completion of the second task, where the first one of the plurality of antennas and the time shared antenna have a known isolation.

10. The user device of claim 7, further comprising logic configured to reserve at least one antenna for the first task assigned to the first priority level.

11. The user device of claim 7, wherein the first priority level is associated with human interface device (HID) operation and the second priority level is associated with Internet Protocol (IP) activity, the first priority level being greater than the second priority level.

12. A wireless interface comprising:

a transmission device comprising a plurality of antennas; and

processing logic in operative communication with the transmission device, the processing logic configured to run one or more computer programs thereon, the one or more computer programs comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed, cause the wireless interface to;

query priority logic, the priority logic configured to select a priority scheme associated with execution of one or more tasks by the wireless interface, the selected priority scheme configured to allocate a particular one or more of the plurality of antennas of the wireless interface to handle specified tasks, where unspecified tasks are allocated to remaining ones of the plurality of antennas; and

based at least in part on the selected priority scheme, adjust one or more operational parameters used in the execution of the one or more tasks;

wherein the priority scheme is selected to optimize data throughput of the wireless interface and at least one other wireless interface with overlapping spectral usage.

13. The wireless interface of claim 12, wherein the adjustment of the one or more operational parameters comprises adjustment of a transmit power of the transmission device.

14. The wireless interface of claim 12, wherein:

the transmission device comprises a plurality of components; and

the adjustment of the one or more operational parameters comprises deactivation of at least one of the plurality of components during execution of the one or more tasks.

15. The wireless interface of claim 13, wherein the plurality of antennas comprise a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array, and the adjustment of the transmit power is based on a tuple of the MIMO antenna array.

16. A method of managing interference during operation of at least two wireless interfaces with overlapping spectral usage, the method comprising:

determining a plurality of priorities corresponding to a plurality of tasks that are scheduled to be simultaneously executed, the plurality of tasks being associated with respective ones of the at least two wireless interfaces; and

based on the determined plurality of priorities, altering the execution of at least one of the plurality of tasks by at least assigning particular ones of a plurality of antennas of one of the at least two wireless interfaces to handle tasks associated with particular ones of the determined plurality of priorities;

wherein the altered execution reduces a resource interference for the at least two wireless interfaces with overlapping spectral usage;

wherein the act of determination further comprises determining physical isolation characteristics of the plurality of antennas in both an open mode and a closed mode; and

wherein when in the closed mode one of the at least two wireless interfaces is still active.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining of at least a first priority comprises polling a baseband processor for the priority.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the altered execution comprises adjusting a transmit power associated with the at least one of the plurality of tasks.