Sharing an antenna between LTE-U and WLAN

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9893758-B2
Application number	US-201615195938-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 29, 2015
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

In a particular aspect, a method includes receiving, at a long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry of wireless device from a wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry of the wireless device while the LTE circuitry has control of at least one antenna of the wireless device, a request for control of the at least one antenna. Communications by the LTE circuitry using the at least one antenna corresponds to a first frequency band, communications by the WLAN circuitry using the at least one antenna correspond to a second frequency band, and the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band. The method further includes sending a response from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on data included in the request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of wireless communication, the method comprising:
performing a first communication operation associated with a first frequency band using at least one antenna of a wireless device, wherein the first communication operation is initiated by long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry of the wireless device; and
based on a comparison of a duration of a second communication operation to an estimated duration before a next LTE communication operation, performing the second communication operation associated with a second frequency band using the at least one antenna of the wireless device, wherein the second communication operation is initiated by wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry of the wireless device, and wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second communication operation is associated with a criticality value that indicates whether the second communication operation is critical.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the criticality value indicates that the second communication operation is critical.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising refraining from performing a third communication operation associated with the second frequency band based on a second criticality value associated with the third communication operation indicating that the third communication operation is not critical.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising performing a third communication operation associated with the first frequency band using the at least one antenna based on a second duration of a fourth communication operation associated with the second frequency band being greater than the estimated duration.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising sending a negative acknowledgement (NACK) from the LTE circuitry to the WLAN circuitry based on the second duration being greater than the estimated duration.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising performing a third communication operation associated with the second frequency band using the at least one antenna based on a criticality value associated with the third communication operation indicating that the third communication operation is critical and a second duration of the third communication operation being greater than the estimated duration.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing a switch to couple the WLAN circuitry to the at least one antenna prior to performing the second communication operation.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising disabling data transmission from the LTE circuitry to the at least one antenna during performance of the second communication operation.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a third communication operation associated with the first frequency band using the at least one antenna after completion of the second communication operation.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second frequency band comprises a 5 gigahertz (GHz) channel.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a periodic communication operation associated with the second frequency band using the at least one antenna, wherein the periodic communication operation is performed multiple times, and wherein the periodic communication operation includes the second communication operation.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a criticality value associated with the periodic communication operation indicates that the periodic communication operation is critical.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising performing a third communication operation associated with the first frequency band using the at least one antenna after performance of the second communication operation and prior to performance of a fourth communication operation associated with the second frequency band, wherein the periodic communication operation comprises the fourth communication operation.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second communication operation is performed based on the duration being less than or equal to the estimated duration.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a third communication operation associated with the second frequency band using the at least one antenna, wherein a periodic communication operation comprises the second communication operation and the third communication operation.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second communication operation and the third communication operation have the same duration.

18. An apparatus comprising:
at least one antenna;
long-term evolution (LTE) circuitry configured to initiate performance of a first communication operation associated with a first frequency band using the at least one antenna; and
wireless local area network (WLAN) circuitry configured to, based on a comparison of a duration of a second communication operation to an estimated duration before a next LTE communication operation, initiate performance of the second communication operation associated with a second frequency band using the at least one antenna, wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the LTE circuitry comprises LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) circuitry configured to perform wireless communications via a 5 GHz channel.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising an interface configured to enable communications between the LTE circuitry and the WLAN circuitry.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising a switch configured to selectively couple the at least one antenna to the WLAN circuitry or to the LTE circuitry.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the LTE circuitry is configured to cause the switch to couple the at least one antenna to the WLAN circuitry based on the duration being less than or equal to the estimated duration.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the LTE circuitry is configured to cause the switch to couple the at least one antenna to the LTE circuitry responsive to completion of the second communication operation.

24. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the interface comprises a shared memory interface, a wireless coexistence interface 2 (WCI-2), a general purpose input-output (GPIO) interface, or a bus.

25. An apparatus comprising:
means for performing a long term evolution (LTE) communication operation associated with a first frequency band using at least one antenna; and
means for performing a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication operation associated with a second frequency band using the at least one antenna, the WLAN communication performed based on a comparison of a duration of the WLAN communication operation to a an estimated duration before a next LTE communication operation, wherein the first frequency band at least partially overlaps the second frequency band.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 , wherein the second frequency band comprises a 5 gigahertz (GHz) channel, and wherein the LTE communication operation comprises a LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) operation via at least a portion of the 5 GHz channel.

27. The apparatus of claim 25 , further comprising means for sharing messages between the means for performing the WLAN communication operation and the means for performing the LTE communication operation.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Homchaudhuri Sandip
• Yenganti Pradeep Kumar
• Ranganath Ashok
• Dhamdhere Deepak
• Modi Viral
• Fan Hong
• Subramanian Pattabiraman
• Burra Gangadhar

Classifications

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04W88/06

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

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title

• H04B1/0053

  with common antenna for more than one band · CPC title