Managing connectivity between wireless devices

• US 9,326,239 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Polo, Angel, Kwan, Chikan, Xie, Guoxin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsieh, Ping
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yang, James
• Application Number:
  US13/631,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20140094123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for managing connectivity of a central device with a peripheral device is provided. The method includes determining a location of a central device, determining a proximity of the central device to a peripheral device group based at least in part on a comparison of the location of the central device to a location profile associated with the peripheral device group and adjusting a scanning duty cycle of the central device in response to the determined proximity of the central device to the peripheral device group. Bluetooth Low Energy modules and systems are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for managing connectivity of a central device with peripheral devices, the method comprising:

determining a location of the central device;

determining a proximity of the central device to a peripheral device group based at least in part on a comparison of the location of the central device to a location profile associated with the peripheral device group;

adjusting a scanning duty cycle of the central device from a first non-zero value to a second non-zero value based on the determined proximity of the central device to the peripheral device group and based on an established connection with at least one device of the peripheral device group; and

decreasing the adjusted scanning duty cycle of the central device when connections are supported by the central device with more than a predetermined percentage of peripheral devices of the peripheral device group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the scanning duty cycle of the central device comprises:

increasing the scanning duty cycle of the central device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group,

wherein decreasing the adjusted scanning duty cycle of the central device is based on supporting the connection of the central device with each of the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein decreasing the scanning duty cycle of the central device comprises:

turning off scanning of the central device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location comprises:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group; and

predicting the location of the central device based on the connection of the central device to the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location comprises:

predicting the location of the central device based on user history information comprising time and location data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the central device is determined using one or more of:

a global positioning system (GPS) signal, IP goo-location information and cell-tower position information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the scanning duty cycle based on the established connection with the at least one device of the peripheral device group.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

supporting a connection with at least one other device of the peripheral device group while supporting the established connection,

wherein the established connection and the connection with the at least one other device are associated with same communication technology.

10. A module for managing connectivity of a central device with peripheral devices, the module comprising:

a memory configured to store location profile data for one or more groups of peripheral devices;

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations for;

determining a location of a central device comprising the module;

determining a proximity of the central device to a peripheral device group based at least in part on a comparison of the location of the central device to a location profile associated with the peripheral device group;

increasing a scanning duty cycle of the central device from a first non-zero value to a second non-zero value based on the determined proximity of the central device to the peripheral device group and based on supporting a connection with at least one device of the peripheral device group;

supporting a connection with at least one other device of the peripheral device group while supporting the connection with the at least one device; and

decreasing the increased scanning duty cycle of the central device when connections are supported with more than a predetermined percentage of peripheral devices of the peripheral device group,

wherein the connection with the at least one device and the connection with the at least one other device are associated with same communication technology.

11. The module of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to perform operations for:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group; and

wherein the processor is configured to perform operations for decreasing the increased scanning duty cycle of the central device based on supporting the connection between the central device and each of the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

12. The module of claim 11, wherein decreasing the scanning duty cycle of the central device comprises:

turning off scanning of the central device.

13. The module of claim 10, wherein determining the location comprises:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group; and

predicting the location of the central device based on the connection of the central device to the one or more peripheral devices.

14. The module of claim 10, wherein determining the location comprises:

predicting the location of the central device based on user history information comprising time and location data.

15. The module of claim 10, wherein the location of the central device is determined using one or more of:

a global positioning system (GPS) signal, IP geo-location information and cell-tower position information.

16. A system for managing connectivity of a central device with peripheral devices, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a wireless communication module coupled to the one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors and the wireless communication module to perform operations comprising;

determining a location of a central device;

determining a proximity of the central device to a peripheral device group based at least in part on a comparison of the location of the central device to a location profile associated with the peripheral device group;

adjusting a scanning duty cycle of the central device from a first non-zero value to a second non-zero value based on the determined proximity of the central device to the peripheral device group and based on supporting a connection with at least one device of the peripheral device group;

supporting a connection with at least one other device of the peripheral device group while supporting the connection with the at least one device; and

decreasing the adjusted scanning duty cycle of the central device when connections are supported by the central device with more than a predetermined percentage of peripheral devices of the peripheral device group,

wherein the connection with the at least one device and the connection with the at least one other device are associated with same communication technology.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein adjusting the scanning duty cycle of the central device comprises:

increasing the scanning duty cycle of the central device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group,

wherein the decreasing is performed based on supporting the connection of the central device with each of the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein decreasing the scanning duty cycle of the central device comprises:

turning off scanning of the central device.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the location of the central device comprises:

supporting a connection between the central device and one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group; and

predicting the location of the central device based on supporting the connection of the central device to the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

supporting a connection with one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group in response to an advertising packet received from the one or more peripheral devices; and

setting, by the system, an advertising duty cycle schedule for the one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

supporting a connection with one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group in response to an advertising packet received from the one or more peripheral devices, and

wherein the one or more peripheral devices are configured to update advertising duty cycles based on a detected advertising duty cycle of another peripheral device in the peripheral device group.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

supporting a connection with one or more peripheral devices in the peripheral device group in response to an advertising packet received from the one or more peripheral devices, and

wherein the one or more peripheral devices are configured to communicate with another peripheral device in the peripheral device group in order to coordinate advertising duty cycles.