Embedding low-speed communications in a high speed wireless tunneling system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9883539-B2
Application number	US-201615072822-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2016
Priority date	Mar 18, 2015
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

A disclosed wireless tunneling system tunnels communications between two processing apparatuses through a wireless link, while maintaining compliance of the communications between the two processing apparatuses with at least two different wired communication protocols. In one embodiment, the wireless tunneling system includes two wireless tunneling apparatuses that communicate with each other through the wireless link. A local wireless tunneling apparatus is coupled to a local processing apparatus through a wired connection and a remote wireless tunneling apparatus is coupled to the remote processing apparatus through another wired connection. The two processing apparatuses may communicate with each other through the wireless link using the two wireless tunneling apparatuses as if the two processing apparatuses were connected through wired connections.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A local wireless tunneling apparatus that operates in conjunction with a remote wireless tunneling apparatus to wirelessly tunnel communications between a remote processing apparatus and a local processing apparatus while maintaining compliance of the communications between the remote processing apparatus and the local processing apparatus with a high-speed wired communication protocol, the local wireless tunneling apparatus comprising:
a wireless receiver configured to receive a wireless receive signal from the remote wireless tunneling apparatus, the wireless receive signal having a plurality of frames, each of the plurality of frames comprising a first receive portion encoding communications corresponding to the high-speed wired communication protocol and a second receive portion encoding communications corresponding to a low-speed wired communication protocol comprising a different protocol and communicating data at a lower speed than the high-speed wired communication protocol, the wireless receiver to decode the wireless receive signal to (i) generate a first output signal based on a predicted state of the remote processing apparatus and the first receive portion that conforms to the high-speed wired communication protocol, and (ii) generate a second output signal based on the second receive portion that conforms to the low-speed wired communication protocol;
a state machine configured to determine the predicted state of the remote processing apparatus based on the first receive portion of the wireless receive signal and to control operation of the wireless receiver based on the predicted state;
an interface circuit coupled to the local processing apparatus and configured to provide the first output signal to the local processing apparatus via the high-speed wired communication protocol; and
a register configured to store the second output signal.

2. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a data rate of the high-speed wired communication protocol is over Gigabits per second, and a data rate of the low-speed wired communication protocol is less than Megabits per second.

3. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first receive portion is generated at the remote processing apparatus at a high-speed data rate based on a remote high-speed clock signal, and wherein the first output signal is generated at the local wireless tunneling apparatus at the high-speed data rate based on a local high-speed clock signal, wherein a low-speed data input corresponding to the second receive portion is generated at a remote processing apparatus coupled to the remote wireless tunneling apparatus according at a low-speed data rate based on a remote low-speed clock, and wherein the second output signal is generated at the local wireless tunneling apparatus at the low-speed data rate based on a local low-speed clock signal, the second output signal at a substantially constant delay relative to the low-speed data input.

4. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a wireless transmitter configured to (i) encode a first input signal and a second input signal in a frame from the plurality of frames to generate a baseband transmit signal, the first input signal conforming to the high-speed wired communication protocol from the local processing apparatus, the second input signal conforming to the low-speed wired communication protocol from the local processing apparatus, (ii) upconvert the baseband transmit signal to generate a wireless transmit signal, and (iii) transmit the wireless transmit signal.

5. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the state machine is further configured to (i) predict a state of the low-speed wired communication protocol based on the second output signal and (ii) determine, based on the predicted state of the low-speed wired communication protocol, whether the wireless receiver is to decode the second receive portion of the wireless receive signal or the wireless transmitter is to encode the second input signal for transmission.

6. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the baseband transmit signal comprises a first transmit portion corresponding to a first time slot of the frame and a second transmit portion corresponding to a second time slot of the frame.

7. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the first receive portion and the first transmit portion are communicated during the first time slot of the frame, and the second receive portion and the second transmit portion are communicated during the second time slot of the frame.

8. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the low-speed wired communication protocol is inter integrated circuit (I2C) or general purpose input output (GPIO).

9. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein content stored in the register is written or read by the local processing apparatus through the low-speed wired communication protocol.

10. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second output signal indicates a connection status between the remote processing apparatus and the remote wireless tunneling apparatus.

11. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second output signal indicates a communication status between the remote wireless tunneling apparatus and the local wireless tunneling apparatus.

12. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second output signal indicates whether the remote wireless tunneling apparatus is placed on a predetermined location.

13. The local wireless tunneling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second output signal controls the local wireless tunneling apparatus to change a state of the high-speed communication protocol.

14. A method for wirelessly tunneling communications between a local processing apparatus and a remote processing apparatus while maintaining compliance of the communications between the local processing apparatus and the remote processing apparatus with a high-speed wired communication protocol, the method comprising:
receiving, by a wireless receiver of a local wireless tunneling apparatus coupled to the local processing apparatus, a wireless receive signal from a remote wireless tunneling apparatus coupled to the remote processing apparatus, the wireless receive signal having a plurality of frames, each of the plurality of frames comprising a first receive portion encoding communications corresponding to the high-speed wired communication protocol and a second receive portion encoding communications corresponding to a low-speed wired communication protocol comprising a different protocol and communicating data at a lower speed than the high-speed wired communication protocol;
determining, by a state machine, a predicted state of the remote processing apparatus based on the first receive portion of the wireless receive signal;
decoding, by the wireless receiver, the wireless receive signal;
generating, by the wireless receiver, a first output signal based on the predicted state of the remote processing apparatus and the first receive portion of the decoded wireless receive signal that conforms to the high-speed wired communication protocol;
providing, by an interface circuit coupled to the local processing apparatus, the first output signal to the local processing apparatus via the high-speed wired communication protocol;
generating, by the wireless receiver, a second output signal based on the second receive portion of the decoded wireless receive signal that conforms to the low-speed wired comm

Assignees

• Lattice Semiconductor Corp

Inventors

• Emami Sohrab
• John Brian Henry
• Laurent Jean-Marc
• Kumar Nishit
• Tang Wen
• Zhu Hai

Classifications

• H04L41/0873

  Checking configuration conflicts between network elements · CPC title

• H04W76/12 Primary

  Setup of transport tunnels · CPC title

• Y02B70/30

  Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level · CPC title

• H04W40/10

  based on available power or energy · CPC title

• G06F1/3278 Primary

  Power saving in modem or I/O interface · CPC title