Apple Inc.

Siegfried Lehmann

Camille Chen

Christiaan A Hartman

Yong Liu

Su Khiong Yong

Guoqing Li

Lei Li

Hsin-Yao Chen

Peter M Agboh

Vusthla Sunil Reddy

Xiaojun Chen

Michael Jason Giles

Akshay Mangalam Srivatsa

Anjali S Sandesara

Ye Sun

Syed Aon Mujtaba

Wen Zhao

Jianxiong Shi

Sriram Hariharan

Lawrie Kurian

Craig P Dooley

Chiu Ngok E Wong

Peter N Heerboth

Langford M Wasada

Wenping Lou

Guangquan Zhou

Alessio Centazzo

Donald Eng

Yuelin Ma

Systems and methods for low power wireless device detection are provided. In one or more implementations, a transmitting/advertising device may include a device identifier and/or one or more time-offset bits in a wireless communication frame for a scanning/receiving device. The scanning/receiving device may perform sequence-level correlation operations to detect the presence of the transmitting/advertising device. The sequence-level correlation operations may detect the transmitting/advertising device based on a detection of a correlation signal peak corresponding to the device identifier, and/or based relative timing of the correlation signal peak corresponding to the device identifier and a correlation signal peak corresponding to another item in the wireless communication frame.

Systems and methods for improved range and performance for low power radios

Methods performed by a first sink device, a source device, or a second sink device. The first sink device is connected to a source device via a first communication link and a second sink device via a second communication link, wherein the second sink device is configured to eavesdrop on communications between the first sink device and the source device on the first communication link. The methods include determining an occurrence of a trigger event and modifying an operation of at least one of the first sink device, the second sink device or the source device based at least on the trigger event occurring.

Coordinated transmission and control for audio output devices

A dual-radio AP including both a high-power (e.g., Wi-Fi) radio and a low-power (e.g., BLE) radio may support an assisted wakeup service for a power-limited dual-radio mobile device (STA). The power-limited STA may register with the AP for the assisted wakeup service, and may then disable its Wi-Fi radio (or otherwise initiate a lower-power mode). The power-limited STA may receive a BLE communication indicating the AP has pending Wi-Fi transmissions or updates applicable to the power-limited STA. In response, the power-limited STA may turn on its Wi-Fi radio and receive the pending transmissions or updates from the AP. If an AP does not include a low-power radio, then a high-power/low-power dual-radio STA that is not power-limited may serve as an assisted wakeup service proxy. The proxy may scan and trace the Wi-Fi beacons from the AP, and generate the BLE communication to the power-limited STA on behalf of the AP.

Wake-up radio assisted WLAN power saving technologies

In some embodiments, one or more wireless stations operate to configure direct communication with neighboring wireless stations, e.g., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a mechanism for a device to transmit, via a BTLE (or Bluetooth) interface, a first message indicating an operation associated with a Wi-Fi service (e.g., a service available via a Wi-Fi interface and/or Wi-Fi related interface parameters) to a peer device. The first message may include a service hash that indicates the operation. The service hash may be included in a first data structure. The first data structure may indicate availability of the Wi-Fi service. The device may receive a second message from the peer device indicating that the neighboring wireless station intends to subscribe to or provide the Wi-Fi service, e.g., via Wi-Fi peer-to-peer communications.

Flexible BTLE TDS frame format for bi-directional service discovery

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

In embodiments, one or more wireless stations operate to configure direct communication with neighboring mobile stations, i.e., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. Embodiments of the disclosure relate a mechanism for coexistence of various radio access technologies during peer-to-peer communications. In some embodiments, a first communication may be scheduled in one or more time slots with a peer station according to a first radio access technology (RAT), an end time of the first communication during a first time slot of the one or more time slots may be determined, and a second communication according to a second RAT may be transmitted. At least a portion of the second communication may be performed during the first time slot. In some embodiments, the first and second communications may be transmitted on the same channel.

Wi-Fi and bluetooth coexistence

In some embodiments, one or more wireless stations operate according to Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN)&#x2014;direct communication with neighboring wireless stations, e.g., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. Embodiments of the disclosure relate to triggering a NAN datapath using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) signaling. The NAN datapath embodiments described herein provide a mechanism through which devices can communicate to establish a Wi-Fi connection via non-Wi-Fi signaling and provide services. Aspects of the datapath development include Wi-Fi connection establishment and datapath initiation. The datapath model may be implemented for unicast and/or multicast communication between wireless stations, including mobile stations.

Bluetooth low energy triggering NAN for further discovery and connection

An interface circuit in a computing device may communicate with user-interface devices using shared slots during time intervals. In particular, the computing device may transmit outgoing messages to the user-interface devices at a first predefined time during sequential time intervals when the user-interface devices transition from a sleep mode to a normal mode. In response, the computing device may receive incoming messages from one or more of the user-interface devices at a second predefined time following the first predefined time during the sequential time intervals. Then, the computing device may transmit a multicast message to the user-interface devices at a third predefined time during the sequential time intervals. In response to the given multicast message, one of the user-interface devices may communicate data to the computing device. Note that, in some instances, a multicast time slot may instead be used to communicate data to one of the user-interface devices.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Siegfried Lehmann