Short-range wireless controller filtering and reporting

• US 9,986,507 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2016
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Viswanadham, Prerepa V., Wang, Wei, Desai, Meghan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tuan H
• Application Number:
  US15/146,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20160249292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2621 using frequency division multiple access [FDMA] H04B7/2615 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74591 using content-addressable memories [CAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• 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 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods and systems for filter data packets using an advertising data packet content filter are disclosed. An example method involves maintaining, by a Bluetooth device, an advertising data content filter. The advertising data content filter includes at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host Bluetooth stack. The method also involves receiving, by the Bluetooth device, a data packet from an advertising Bluetooth device. The method further involves determining, by the Bluetooth device, that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter. And the method involves providing a portion of the data packet to the host Bluetooth stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a short-range wireless device, multiple advertising data content filters and each advertising data content filter being associated with a corresponding application operating on the short-range wireless device, wherein each advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack for the corresponding application;

receiving, by the short-range wireless device, a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining, by the short-range wireless device, that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the multiple advertising data content filters; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filters, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter for the corresponding application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more commands for configuring parameters of each advertising data content filter; and

configuring the parameters of each advertising content packet filter based on the one or more commands.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one content filter for each advertising data content filter is selected from the group consisting of:

a broadcaster address filter;

a service universally unique identifier (UUID) filter;

a service solicitation UUID filter;

a local name filter;

a manufacturer data filter; and

a service data filter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises an advertising packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet comprises a scan response packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises an immediate delivery mode wherein the portion of the data packet is immediately delivered to the host stack.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a batching mode wherein the portion of the data packet is stored in a memory of a short-range wireless controller.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a verification mode wherein the portion of the data packet is delivered to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one advertising data content filter associated with a corresponding application operating on the short-range wireless device further comprises a configurable received signal strength indication (RSSI) threshold, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether an RSSI of the data packet satisfies the RSSI threshold; and

if the RSSI of the data packet satisfies the RSSI threshold, filtering the data packet using the advertising data content filter, but if the RSSI of the data packet does not satisfy the RSSI threshold, then ignoring the data packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the host stack is implemented by a host processor of the short-range wireless device, and wherein receiving the data packet and determining that content of the data packet matches the particular content filter of the multiple advertising data content filters are carried out by a short-range wireless controller of the short-range wireless device while the host processor of the short-range wireless device is in an idle mode or sleep mode.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each advertising data content filter is configurable using a plurality of predetermined operating codes.

12. A short-range wireless device comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium, configured to store instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the short-range wireless device to perform functions comprising;

maintaining multiple advertising data content filters and each advertising data content filter being associated with a corresponding application operating on the short-range wireless device, wherein each advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack for the corresponding application;

receiving a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the multiple advertising data content filters; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filters, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter for the corresponding application.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the at least one content filter for each advertising data content filter is selected from the group consisting of:

a broadcaster address filter;

a service universally unique identifier (UUID) filter;

a service solicitation UUID filter;

a local name filter;

a manufacturer data filter; and

a service data filter.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the data packet comprises an advertising packet.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the data packet comprises a scan response packet.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises an immediate delivery mode wherein the portion of the data packet is immediately delivered to the host stack.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a batching mode wherein the portion of the data packet is stored in a memory of a short-range wireless controller.

18. The device of claim 12, wherein the at least one respective delivery mode comprises a verification mode wherein the portion of the data packet is delivered to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the functions further comprise determining whether to immediately deliver providing a portion of the data packet to the host stack, store the portion of the data packet in a memory of the short-range wireless device, or deliver the portion of the data packet to the host stack upon expiration of a timeout period and verification of a presence of the advertising short-range wireless device, in accordance with the at least one respective delivery mode corresponding to the content filter for the corresponding application.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by one or more processors of a short-range wireless device, cause the short-range wireless device to perform functions comprising:

maintaining multiple advertising data content filters and each advertising data content filter being associated with a corresponding application operating on the short-range wireless device, wherein each advertising data content filter comprises at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host stack for the corresponding application;

receiving a data packet from an advertising short-range wireless device;

determining that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the multiple advertising data content filters; and

based on the content of the data packet matching the particular content filter of the advertising data content filters, delivering a portion of the data packet to the host stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter for the corresponding application.