ZigBee, Thread And BLE Co-Existence With 2.4 GHz WIFI

A system comprising:

• a WIFI controller, comprising a request signal used as an input to request exclusive access to a shared medium and a grant signal used as an output indicating that the exclusive access to the shared medium has been granted;
• and
• a lower-power network controller, comprising a processing unit and an associated memory element, wherein the lower-power network controller is configured to:
• assert the request signal when the lower-power network controller determines that a lower-power network packet is being received;
• parse the lower-power network packet to determine if the lower-power network packet is destined for this controller;
• and
• deassert the request signal if it is determined that the lower-power network packet is not destined for this controller.

A system comprising:

• a WIFI controller, comprising a request signal used as an input to request exclusive access to a shared medium and a grant signal used as an output indicating that the exclusive access to the shared medium has been granted;
• and
• a lower-power network controller, comprising a processing unit and an associated memory element, wherein the lower-power network controller is configured to:
• determine when there is a lower-power network packet to transmit;
• calculate a random delay to be used by the lower-power network controller prior to attempting to transmit the lower-power network packet on the shared medium;
• and
• assert the request signal a predetermined amount of time after determining that there is a lower-power network packet to transmit, wherein the predetermined amount of time is determined based on the random delay.

A method of simultaneously operating a WIFI network and a lower-power network, comprising:

• determining, using a lower-power network controller, that an incoming packet is being received;
• asserting a request signal from the lower-power network controller to a WIFI controller before an entirety of the incoming packet is received;
• and
• transmitting an acknowledgement packet after receiving the incoming packet, using the lower-power network controller, if a destination address of the incoming packet matches an address of the lower-power network controller and the WIFI controller indicates that it is not transmitting a packet.