Using information obtained from one wireless medium for communication in another wireless medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9307416-B2
Application number	US-86359108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 17, 2008
Priority date	Jan 17, 2008
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

The present invention may include system for utilizing operational information obtained by one wireless communication medium that is supported by a wireless device in order to optimize the operation of another wireless communication medium also supported in the same device. More specifically, the present invention may leverage channel condition information collected as part of the standard operation of a wireless communication medium including interference avoidance capabilities, like Bluetooth™ with Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH), in order to modify the operation in another wireless communication medium such as by determining a channel scan list of potential operational channels to scan, determining a scan order for the channel scan list of potential communication channels based on, for example, the probability that a channel is currently being utilized by a target device, and/or altering a scan rate for one or more communication channels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
scanning, by a Bluetooth radio module of a wireless communication device, one or more communication channels corresponding to a Bluetooth communication medium on which the Bluetooth radio module operates;
detecting, via said scanning, activity on at least one of the one or more communication channels corresponding to the Bluetooth communication medium;
determining that the detected activity on the at least one of the one or more communication channels is interference to operation of the Bluetooth radio module;
adjusting operation of the Bluetooth radio module to avoid the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected;
determining the detected interfering activity to correspond to one or more networks usable by a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio module of the wireless communication device for operation on a WLAN communication medium;
storing information indicating whether the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected are usable by the WLAN radio module;
passing the indicative information to the WLAN radio module of the wireless communication device; and
modifying, based on the indicative information, operation of the WLAN radio module by increasing a channel scan rate of the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium in response to said determining that the detected interfering activity corresponds to one or more networks usable by the WLAN radio module.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein one or more communication channels corresponding to the one or more of said networks are included in a set of channels to be scanned by the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said modifying operation en of the WLAN communication module includes scanning one or more communication channels corresponding to the one or more of said networks in a priority order based on the indicative information.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the channel scan rate of the WLAN communication module is decreased when none of the one or more channels are determined to have activity that corresponds to the WLAN communication medium.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said modifying operation of the WLAN communication module includes triggering channel scanning of the WLAN communication module when one or more channels are determined to have activity that corresponds to the WLAN communication medium.

6. A device, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the device to:
scan, by a Bluetooth radio module of the device, one or more communication channels corresponding to a a Bluetooth communication medium on which the Bluetooth radio module operates;
detect, via said scan, activity on at least one of the one or more communication channels corresponding to the Bluetooth communication medium;
determine that the detected activity on the at least one of the one or more communication channels is interference to operation of the Bluetooth radio module;
adjust operation of the Bluetooth radio module to avoid the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected;
determine the detected interfering activity to correspond to one or more networks usable by a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio module of the device for operation on a WLAN communication medium;
store information in the device indicating whether the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected are usable by the WLAN radio module;
pass the indicative information to the WLAN radio module of the wireless communication device; and
modify, based on the indicative information, operation of the WLAN radio module by increasing a channel scan rate of the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium in response to said determining that the detected interfering activity corresponds to one or more networks usable by the WLAN radio module.

7. A device according to claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to instruct including of one or more communication channels corresponding to the one or more of said networks in a set of channels to be scanned by the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium.

8. A device according to claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to instruct scanning of one or more communication channels corresponding to the one or more of said networks in a priority order based on the indicative information.

9. A device according to claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to instruct decreasing of the channel scan rate of the WLAN communication module when none of the one or more channels are determined to have activity that corresponds to the WLAN communication medium.

10. A device according to claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to instruct triggering of channel scanning of the WLAN communication module when one or more channels are determined to have activity that corresponds to the WLAN communication medium.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said medium, comprising:
a computer readable program code configured to cause a first radio module of a wireless communication device to scan one or more communication channels corresponding to a Bluetooth communication medium on which the Bluetooth radio module operates;
a computer readable program code configured to detect, from said scan, activity on at least one of the one or more communication channels corresponding to the Bluetooth communication medium;
a computer readable program code configured to determine that the detected activity on the at least one of the one or more communication channels is interference to operation of the Bluetooth radio module;
a computer readable program code configured to adjust operation of the Bluetooth radio module to avoid the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected;
a computer readable program code configured to determine the detected interfering activity to correspond to one or more networks usable by a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio module of the wireless communication device for operation on a WLAN communication medium;
a computer readable program code configured to store information in the device indicating whether the at least one of the one or more communication channels on which interfering activity has been detected are usable by the WLAN radio module;
a computer readable program code configured to pass the indicative information to the WLAN radio module of the wireless communication device; and
a computer readable program code configured to modify, based on the indicative information, operation of the WLAN radio module by increasing a channel scan rate of the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium in response to said determining that the detected interfering activity corresponds to one or more networks usable by the WLAN radio module.

12. A computer program product according to claim 11 , further comprising a computer readable program code configured to include one or more communication channels corresponding to the one or more of said networks in a set of channels to be scanned by the WLAN radio module on the WLAN communication medium.

13. A computer program product according to claim 11 , further compr

Assignees

• Ruuska Paivi M
• Vainio Miia
• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Ruuska Paivi M
• Vainio Miia

Classifications

• H04W84/042

  Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W76/02

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W28/06

  Optimizing {the usage of the radio link}, e.g. header compression, information sizing {, discarding information (system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365)} · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title