Adaptive wireless frequency band sharing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9826529-B1
Application number	US-201514743590-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 18, 2015
Priority date	Jun 18, 2015
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

Various approaches discussed herein enable establishing a wireless connection with one or more devices, where the wireless communication with each device utilizes one or more technologies that share a frequency band for data transmission. Data is communicated, for example alternatively, over the frequency band with the one or more devices. During a first period of data transmission, one of the wireless connections is assigned a portion of the period to communicate data, while another of the wireless connections is assigned another portion of the period to communicate data. An actual amount of the period used by one of the wireless connections is determined, and in a following period, the portions of the following period assigned to one or more of the wireless connections may be adjusted, based on the actual amount, a quality determination, or a combination of both.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
establishing, by a source device, a first wireless connection with a first device and a second wireless connection with a second device, wherein the first wireless connection and the second wireless connection communicate data over a shared frequency band;
communicating, by the source device, with the first and second devices during a first transmission period, wherein the first wireless connection is allotted a first portion of the first transmission period and the second wireless connection is allotted a remaining portion of the first transmission period;
determining, by the source device, an actual amount of the first transmission period used for data communication by the first wireless connection;
communicating, by the source device, with the first and second devices during a second transmission period, wherein the first wireless connection is allotted a second portion of the second transmission period and the second wireless connection is allotted a remaining portion of the second transmission period, the second portion being different from the first portion and at least equal to the actual amount;
comparing, by the source device, a first value associated with characteristics of the first wireless connection during the first transmission period with a second value associated with characteristics of the first wireless connection during the second transmission period;
determining, by the source device, that a quality of the first wireless connection during the second transmission period has not decreased from a predetermined threshold, wherein the determination is made based on the comparison of the first value and the second value; and
calculating, by the source device, the second portion, based in part on the determination that the quality of the first wireless connection meets the predetermined threshold.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring, by the source device, characteristics of the first wireless connection;
determining, by the source device, based on the characteristics, that the quality of the first wireless connection meets the predetermined threshold;
determining, by the source device, based on the comparison of the actual amount and the first portion, that the first wireless connection is not communicating data during the entire first portion; and
calculating, by the source device, the second portion, based in part on the determination that the quality of the first wireless connection meets the predetermined threshold or the determination that the first wireless connection is not communicating data during the entire first portion.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the characteristics of the first wireless connection include at least one of channel quality, current performance statistics, historical usage, packet analysis, received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values, modulation schemes, data rates, or packet re-transmission statistics.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring, by the source device, characteristics of the first wireless connection;
determining, by the source device, based at least on the characteristics, that a quality of the first wireless connection is below the predetermined threshold;
determining, by the source device, based at least on a comparison of the actual amount and the first portion, that the first wireless connection is communicating data during at least a threshold amount during the first portion; and
calculating, by the source device, the second portion, based at least in part on the determination that the quality of the first wireless connection is below the predetermined threshold or the determination that the first wireless connection is communicating data during at least a threshold amount during the first portion.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the second portion does not exceed a predetermined maximum threshold value, the predetermined maximum threshold value being less than the first portion.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first wireless connection is a Bluetooth connection and the first device is a Bluetooth-enabled device, and further comprising:
determining, by the source device, an actual amount of the second transmission period used for Bluetooth communication with the Bluetooth-enabled device over the Bluetooth connection;
determining, by the source device, a third portion of a third transmission period to be assigned to the Bluetooth-enabled device, based at least in part on a Bluetooth profile associated with the Bluetooth-enabled device, the Bluetooth-enabled device type, an intended use of the Bluetooth-enabled device, or characteristics associated with the Bluetooth connection, wherein the third portion does not exceed a predetermined maximum value.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the source device, an actual amount of the second transmission period used for data communication by the first device over the first wireless connection;
communicating, by the source device, with the first and second devices during a third transmission period, wherein the first wireless connection is allotted a third portion of the second transmission period, and wherein the third portion is determined based at least in part on a comparison of the actual amount of the first transmission period with the actual amount of the second transmission period or a comparison of the first portion of the first transmission period with the second portion of the second transmission period.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first wireless connection is a Bluetooth connection and the first device is a Bluetooth-enabled device, and wherein the first and second transmission periods comprise Time Division Duplex (TDD) frames, further comprising:
determining, by the source device, a number of Bluetooth time slots corresponding to the first transmission period and the first portion; and
increasing, by the source device, the second portion by a predetermined number of Bluetooth time slots.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the second wireless connection comprises a Wi-Fi connection, and further comprising:
communicating, by the source device to a component associated with the Wi-Fi connection, information describing an amount of the remaining portion of the second transmission period allotted to the Wi-Fi connection; and
changing, by the component associated with the Wi-Fi connection, at least one parameter associated with the Wi-Fi connection based at least on the information describing an amount of the remaining portion of the second transmission period allotted to the Wi-Fi connection6.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the shared frequency band is one of 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, or 5.8 GHz.

11. A computing device, comprising:
at least one processor;
memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to:
establish, by a source device, a first wireless connection and a second wireless connection with one or more wireless devices, wherein the first wireless connection and the second wireless connection communicate data with the wireless devices over a shared frequency band;
communicate, by the source device, with the one or more wireless devices during a first period, wherein the first wireless connection is allotted a first subset of the first period and the second wireless connection is allotted a second subset of the first period;
determine, by the source device, an a

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Jorgovanovic Milos

Classifications

• H04L5/006 Primary

  Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title

• H04W72/543

  based on requested quality, e.g. QoS · CPC title

• H04W72/0446 Primary

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title

• H04W72/085

  Electricity · mapped topic