Method and system for quick Bluetooth low energy (BLE) protocol signal presence detection for coexistence

• US 8,874,034 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2008
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walley, John S., Ibrahim, Brima Babatunde, Hall, Steven, Desai, Prasanna, Zhuang, Yuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hanidu, Ganiyu A
• Application Number:
  US12/267,951
• Publication Number:
  US 20100120362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,178 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/552.1, 455/419, 455/420, 455/445, 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 455/63.1, 455/90.2, 455/553.1, 370/338, 370/401, 370/341, 370/328, 370/344, 370/230, 370/310
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks

Abstract

Aspects of the invention may comprise managing operations of BLE interfaces and/or other radio interfaces in a wireless device to mitigate interference to communication via the BLE interfaces by the other radio interfaces. Operating parameters may be communicated between the BLE interfaces and the other radio interfaces to enable mitigating the interference to the BLE interfaces, and at least some of the BLE interfaces and/or the other radio interfaces may be configured based on the communicated operating parameters. The operating parameters may comprise adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) maps that may be adjusted to prevent use of common and/or used channels. The communication device may detect energy associated with BLE communication via scan of all or some of channels used for BLE communication. BLE communication may be predicted based on monitoring of frequency bands used during BLE communication, and/or monitoring of events that may trigger and/or occur during BLE communication.

Claims

1. A method for communication, the method comprising:

in a communication device comprising one or more Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard radio interfaces and one or more other radio interfaces;

scanning for energy detection in one or more frequency bands associated with said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces;

scanning at least one channel associated with said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces based upon detected energy in a frequency band of said one or more frequency bands;

determining which of said one or more other radio interfaces will interfere with communications of said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces based at least in part upon the frequency band in which said detected energy was detected; and

managing operation of said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said determined one or more other radio interfaces to mitigate said determined

communication interference based at least in part upon activity detected on said at least one scanned channel, the managing comprising applying a usage weight algorithm to channel usage of the one or more other radio interfaces such that the at least one channel is used less often by the one or more other radio interfaces than other channels.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising communicating operating parameters between said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said determined one or more other radio interfaces.

3. The method according to claim 2, comprising configuring one or both of said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said determined one or more other radio interfaces based on said communicated operating parameters.

4. The method according to claim 1, comprising detecting energy associated with communication via said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces in said one or more scanned frequency bands.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one scanned channel comprises an access channel utilized by said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

6. The method according to claim 5, comprising upon completion of said scanning of said at least one scanned channel, increasing a number of channels being scanned in a subsequent scan.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising exchanging corresponding adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) maps between said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said determined one or more other radio interfaces.

8. The method according to claim 7, comprising applying a usage weight algorithm to the adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) maps of the determined one or more other radio interfaces such that one or more frequencies of the AFH associated with the at least one channel are selected for hopping at least once but less often than other frequencies of the AFH.

9. The method according to claim 1, comprising predicting Bluetooth low energy activity based on monitoring one or more channels utilized by said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

10. The method according to claim 1, comprising predicting Bluetooth low energy activity based on monitoring one or more events communicated via said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

11. A system for communication, the system comprising:

one or more circuits in a communication device that comprises one or more Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard radio interfaces and one or more other radio interfaces;

said one or more circuits configured to determine which of said one or more other radio interfaces will interfere with communications of said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces based at least in part upon detected energy in one or more frequency bands associated with said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces;

said one or more circuits configured to determine at least one BLE channel to avoid based at least in part upon detected energy in said one or more frequency bands; and

said one or more circuits configured to manage operation of said one or more other radio interfaces to avoid said at least one BLE channel to mitigate said determined communication interference with said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces by at least applying a usage weight algorithm to channel usage of the one or more other radio interfaces such that the at least one BLE channel is used less often by the one or more other radio interfaces than other BLE channels.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits configured to communicate operating parameters between said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said one or more other radio interfaces.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits configured to configure one or both of said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said one or more other radio interfaces based on said communicated operating parameters.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits configured to detect energy associated with communication via said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said one or more circuits configured to scan one or more frequency bands utilized by said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces for said detection of said energy.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein said one or more circuits configured to scan a subset of said one or more frequency bands for said detection of said energy, said subset comprising at least one BLE channel utilized by said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein said subset of said one or more frequency bands comprises BLE channels for data transfer.

18. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits configured to exchange corresponding adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) maps between said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces and said one or more other radio interfaces.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein said one or more circuits configured to adjust said corresponding adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) maps, independently of the corresponding AFH, to enable or disable transmission or reception via one or both of said one or more BLE standard radio and said one or more other radio interfaces.

20. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits configured to predict Bluetooth low energy activity based on monitoring one or more BLE channels utilized by said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

21. The system according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits are operable to predict Bluetooth low energy activity based on monitoring one or more events communicated via said one or more BLE standard radio interfaces.

22. A method for communication, comprising:

in a communication device comprising a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard radio interface and one or more other radio interfaces;

scanning to detect energy in one or more frequency bands including a plurality of channels associated with the BLE standard radio interface;

determining at least one channel of the plurality of channels to at least partially avoid based at least in part upon detected energy in the one or more frequency bands; and

managing operation of the one or more other radio interfaces to mitigate communication interference with the BLE standard radio interface based upon the determined at least one channel to at least partially avoid,

wherein the managing comprises applying a usage weight algorithm to channel usage of the one or more other radio interfaces such that the at least one channel is used less often by the one or more other radio interfaces than other channels of the plurality of channels.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one channel is used at least once by at least one of the one or more other radio interfaces.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the determined at least one channel to at least partially avoid includes at least one of an access channel associated with the BLE standard radio interface or a subset of the plurality of channels associated with the BLE standard radio interface.