Time synchronizing a wireless communication device and a peripheral device based on one or more access points

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12520260-B2
Application number	US-202318453976-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2023
Priority date	Aug 22, 2023
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a peripheral device may synchronize a local clock to an access point timing synchronization function clock (TSF_AP) that is maintained by an access point (AP) connected to the peripheral device. The peripheral device may maintain, based at least in part on the local clock, an estimated time-to-play timing synchronization function clock (TSF_est) that is associated with outputting user data. The peripheral device may receive, from the AP, timing synchronization information that is based at least in part on a comparison between a wireless communication device (WCD) time-to-play timing synchronization function software clock (TSF_soft) and the TSF_est. The peripheral device may output the user data based at least in part on the TSF_est and the timing synchronization information. Numerous other aspects are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for wireless communication at a peripheral device, comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured, individually or collectively, to:
synchronize a local clock to an access point timing synchronization function clock (TSF_AP) that is maintained by an access point (AP) connected to the peripheral device;
maintain, based at least in part on the local clock, an estimated time-to-play timing synchronization function clock (TSF_est) that is associated with outputting user data;
receive, from the AP, timing synchronization information that is based at least in part on a comparison between a wireless communication device (WCD) time-to-play timing synchronization function software clock (TSF_soft) and the TSF_est; and
output the user data based at least in part on the TSF_est and the timing synchronization information.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the user data comprises audio data that is associated with an audio frame that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral device is a first peripheral device included in a peripheral device pair that includes a second peripheral device, and
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
use the TSF_AP as a common network clock that is shared with the second peripheral device.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the timing synchronization information comprises at least one of:
a clock drift metric that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft and the TSF_AP, or a clock offset metric that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft and the TSF_AP.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
convert an audio frame timing reference that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft to a local audio frame timing reference that is based at least in part on the TSF_est and the timing synchronization information, wherein the one or more processors, to output the user data based at least in part on the TSF_est and the timing synchronization information, are configured to:
output the user data based at least in part on the local audio frame timing reference.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
transmit an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization initialization message; disable a power saving mode; and perform an XPAN synchronization procedure that is based at least in part on the WCD, wherein the timing synchronization information is based at least in part on the XPAN synchronization procedure.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
transmit an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization initialization message; disable a power saving mode; receive an XPAN synchronization time message that indicates the timing synchronization information; and enable the power saving mode.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive an indication that the WCD is connected to the AP connected to the peripheral device; disable a power saving mode; transmit an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization request message; and receive an XPAN synchronization time message that indicates the timing synchronization information.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AP is a first AP, wherein the timing synchronization information is first timing synchronization information, and the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive an indication that the WCD is connected to a second AP that is different from the first AP; calculate second timing synchronization information that is based at least in part on the peripheral device and the first AP; transmit an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization measure message that indicates the second timing synchronization information; and receive an XPAN synchronization time message that indicates the first timing synchronization information.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AP is a first AP, and the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive, prior to initialization of the TSF_est, an indication that the WCD is connected to a second AP that is different from the first AP; transmit an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization initialization message based at least in part on TSF_est being uninitialized; disable a power saving mode; perform an XPAN synchronization procedure; receive an XPAN synchronization time message that indicates the timing synchronization information; and enable the power saving mode.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AP is a first AP, wherein the TSF_AP is a first TSF_AP, the TSF_est is a first TSF_est, and the one or more processors are further configured to:
disconnect from the first AP; connect to a second AP that is associated with a second TSF_AP; synchronize the local TSF to the second TSF_AP; maintain a second TSF_est based at least in part on the second TSF_AP; and output the user data based at least in part on the second TSF_est.

12 . An apparatus for wireless communication at a wireless communication device (WCD), comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured, individually or collectively, to:
maintain a WCD time-to-play timing synchronization function software clock (TSF_soft) that is associated with outputting user data at a peripheral device;
calculate timing synchronization information that is associated with synchronizing the WCD TSF_soft and an estimation of the WCD TSF_soft (TSF_est) that is local to the peripheral device; and
transmit, to an access point (AP), a message that indicates the timing synchronization information and is addressed to the peripheral device.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the peripheral device is a first peripheral device in a peripheral device pair, and the one or more processors are further configured to:
transmit, to the AP, a second message that indicates the timing synchronization information, wherein the second message is addressed to a second peripheral device of the peripheral device pair.

14 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
transmit the user data to the AP, wherein the user data is addressed to the peripheral device.

15 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the timing synchronization information comprises at least one of:
a clock drift metric that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft and the TSF_AP, or a clock offset metric that is based at least in part on the WCD TSF_soft and the TSF_AP.

16 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
perform an extended personal area network (XPAN) synchronization procedure with the peripheral device, wherein the timing synchronization information is based at least in part on the synchronization procedure.

17 . The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the one or more processors, to perform the synchronization procedure, are configured to:
transmit, to the AP, an XPAN synchronization message that is addressed to the peripheral device; and receive, from the AP, an XPAN synchronization response message that indicates that the peripheral device is a source of the XPAN synchronization response message.

1

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Turner Richard
• Wojcieszak Laurent
• Cardoe Richard
• Miryala Sriman
• Dutt Debashis
• Rea Derrick
• Kumaravel Ganesh Babu

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W56/0015 Primary

  one node acting as a reference for the others · CPC title