Bluetooth polling with fewer poll packets
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorJorgen Parys
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Bluetooth master unit polls a slave unit to enable the slave to resynchronize to the master, by sending POLL packets with sufficient frequency to maintain a connection to the slave, and in the intervals between such packets, sending NULL packets with sufficient frequency to maintain synchronization of the slave. By replacing some POLL packets with NULL packets, since the slave does not have to respond to a NULL packet, it can save some power, and there is reduced interference on other piconets. The frequency of the remaining POLL packets is set according to a Link Supervision Timeout (to avoid having this timer expire and thus keep the Bluetooth Link to the slave alive) and according to the time since the master received the last packet from the slave.
Claims20
A master wireless unit arranged to communicate with a slave wireless unit by sending packets, and having a controller arranged to address the slave to enable the slave to resynchronize to the master by sending packets of a type which prompt a response from the slave at a first rate to maintain a connection to the slave, and in the intervals between such packets, sending packets of a type which need no response at a second rate to maintain synchronization of the slave.
Software for implementing a controller of the master radio comprising code segments for:
- addressing a slave to enable the slave to resynchronize to the master by sending packets of a type which prompt a response from the slave at a first rate to maintain a connection to the slave, and in the intervals between such packets, sending packets of a type which need no response at a second rate to maintain synchronization of the slave.
A method of using a master wireless unit to communicate with a slave wireless unit by sending packets and having the steps of addressing the slave to enable the slave to resynchronize to the master, by sending packets of a type which prompt a response from the slave at a first rate to maintain a connection to the slave, and in the intervals between such packets, sending packets of a type which need no response at a second rate to maintain synchronization of the slave.
A sequence of radio signals from a master wireless unit arranged to communicate with a slave wireless unit by sending packets to address the slave to enable the slave to resynchronize to the master, the sequence having packets of a type which prompt a response from the slave sent at a first rate to maintain a connection to the slave, and in the intervals between such packets, packets of a type which need no response are sent at a second rate to maintain synchronization of the slave.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.