Apple Inc.

Hsin-Yao Chen

Camille Chen

Siegfried Lehmann

Michael Jason Giles

Christopher B Zimmermann

Paul V Flynn

David B Cheung

Ye Chen

Yaranama Venkata Ramana Dass

Ye Sun

Sarvesh Kumar Varatharajan

Wen Zhao

Lei Li

Wenping Lou

Guangquan Zhou

Systems, methods, and mechanisms to enhance border router performance across Thread, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth protocols, including mechanisms for Thread network mesh reconfiguration for optimized/enhanced coexistence and frequency selection with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, co-located Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Thread coexistence border router design, and dynamic adjustment for Thread energy detection (ED).

Thread device eco-system design

Optimized eco-system design with thread devices

Methods and apparatuses for mitigating coexistence interference in a wireless device between a WLAN interface and a WPAN interface during a WLAN authentication process. The wireless device associates with a WLAN access point (AP), and after receiving a WLAN association response from the WLAN AP, the wireless device alternates between WLAN time periods, during which WLAN transmission is enabled and WPAN transmission is disabled, and WPAN time periods, during which WPAN transmission is enabled and WLAN transmission is disabled, during the WLAN authentication process. Durations of the WPAN time periods are based at least in part on a WPAN profile, e.g., a Bluetooth profile, in use by the wireless device. Durations of the WLAN time periods are based at least in part on receipt of WLAN authentication messages from the WLAN AP during the authentication process or expiration of WLAN authentication process timers.

Coexistence interference mitigation during wireless local area network authentication

Methods and apparatuses for managing coexistence of multiple wireless devices that share a radio frequency band and communicate with a wireless network device. The wireless devices include both wireless personal area network (WPAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) devices. The wireless network device monitors data activity for WPAN devices to determine whether the WPAN devices are active or inactive, and sets one or more polling intervals for the WPAN devices accordingly. The wireless network device consolidates polling for multiple WPAN devices into a common WPAN polling time period and sends a radio frequency (RF) reservation request to a WLAN access point (AP), the RF reservation request including an indication of a duration for the common WPAN polling time period, during which the multiple WPAN devices are polled. WLAN data packet transmission is delayed during the common WPAN polling time period to mitigate coexistence interference.

Coexistence management for multiple wireless devices by a wireless network device

In embodiments, a client station operates to identify and prioritize time-sensitive short-range wireless packets, such as time-sensitive Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) packets, in a congested wireless environment. The client station may identify time-sensitive packets using, e.g., the type of device providing the packets, a state of the device providing the packets, and/or the type of data included in the packets. The client station may prioritize the time-sensitive packets in various ways, including by providing priority scheduling to the time-sensitive packets; pausing communication of other types of Bluetooth packets, such as A2DP packets; reducing a data rate of other types of Bluetooth packets, such as A2DP packets; and/or extending a data packet size of time-sensitive BTLE packets. The time-sensitive packets may thus be prioritized over packets associated with the same wireless protocol and/or a different wireless protocol.

Prioritizing short-range wireless packets for time-sensitive applications

In the subject system for Bluetooth audio role-based scheduling, an electronic device (e.g., a mobile phone), may receive streaming audio over a cellular connection, e.g. LTE, and may stream the audio to a head unit of a vehicle, e.g. via Bluetooth. The electronic device may also concurrently communicate with other electronic devices via, e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or BTLE. The electronic device may determine the Bluetooth/communication capabilities of the HU device, such as buffer size, and the electronic device may proactively configure Bluetooth settings/parameters for communicating with the HU device based on the capabilities of the HU device. The electronic device may also adaptively modify scheduling for communications with other electronic devices based on the determined capabilities of the HU device. In this manner, the electronic device can proactively mitigate and/or prevent the sub-optimal user experience caused by any differences in Bluetooth/communication capabilities of the HU device and the electronic device.

Bluetooth audio role-based scheduling

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.

Methods and apparatus for mitigating interference in aggressive form factor designs

Methods and apparatus for optimizing wireless network performance by incorporating platform configuration and use case information. In one exemplary scheme, a client device provides the wireless network with an indications of impacted operations based on the client device's platform configuration. The wireless network can adjust the radio link to the client device so as to best accommodate the impacted operation. In one embodiment, a client device that includes a 3&#xd7;3 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) (or 4&#xd7;4, 2&#xd7;2, etc.) and Bluetooth (BT) module identifies a subset of modulation and coding schemes (MCS) that are preferred for operation. The client device provides the identified subset to the WLAN access point (AP). Responsively, the WLAN AP selects a MCS, such that the client device's overall performance remains at an acceptable level. In another embodiment, the server/client can adjust MCS and/or active antenna chains based on the noise floor (NF) level.

Growing community of inventors

Castro Valley, CA, United States of America

Hsin-Yao Chen