Claims
- 1. An apparatus comprising:
a first wireless transceiver and a second wireless transceiver operative in a coordinated manner and coupled to at least one controller manager, said first wireless transceiver transmitting and receiving signals in accordance with a first protocol to and from a first network device of a first wireless network communicatively coupled to the apparatus and said second wireless transceiver transmitting and receiving signals in accordance with a second protocol to and from a second network device of a second wireless network communicatively coupled to the apparatus; and a network manager coupled to said first wireless transceiver, said second wireless transceiver and said at least one controller manager for coordinating transmit and receive operations of said first wireless transceiver and said second wireless transceiver in order to enable the apparatus to contemporaneously communicate with said first and second wireless networks.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the network manager is further operative to coordinate transmit and receive operations of said first and second network devices and wherein the first protocol is a frequency hopping protocol comprising a plurality of frequencies employed in accordance with a pseudo random pattern, the network manager including logic to determine a pseudo random frequency hopping pattern for said first network devices of said first wireless network.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the network manager further includes logic to predict when interference will occur between said first and second network devices of said first and second wireless networks, based on said determined pseudo random frequency hopping pattern.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network manager further includes logic to select either said first or said second network devices as dominated devices, to be operationally dominated by the non-selected first/second network devices.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the network manager further includes logic to preemptively notify one or more of the dominated devices, whenever an interference is predicted to occur, to temporarily suspend signal transmission to avoid interference with the dominant devices.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network manager further includes logic to determine corresponding filtering to be employed by said first and second network devices to correspondingly cancel respective interference signals whenever an interference is predicted to occur.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the network manager further includes logic to determine first and second notch filters, inversely formed in accordance with transmit signals of said second and first network devices, for said first and second network devices.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first and the second protocol are two protocols selected from a group consisting of Bluetooth, 802.11 frequency hopping, 802.11 direct sequence, 802.11a, 802.11b, and Home RF.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a computer having a form factor selected from a group consisting of a desktop type, a notebook type and a palm sized type.
- 10. In an apparatus having at least one wireless transceiver and at least one controller manager, a method of operation comprising:
(a) selecting either first network devices of a first wireless network operating in accordance with a first wireless protocol or second network devices of a second wireless network operating in accordance with a second wireless protocol, to be dominant devices that may be configured to operationally dominate at least one of the non-selected network devices of the other wireless network; and (b) operating the at least one wireless transceiver and the at least one controller manager to configure at least one of the dominated devices to pro-actively avoid interference with the dominant devices to reduce interference arising between the first and second wireless networks.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first protocol is a frequency hopping protocol comprising a plurality of frequencies employed in accordance with a pseudo random pattern, and the method further includes determining a pseudo random frequency hopping pattern for said first network devices of said first wireless network.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further includes predicting when interference will occur between said first and second network devices of said first and second wireless networks, based on said determined pseudo random frequency hopping pattern.
- 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further includes preemptively notifying the at least one of the dominated devices, whenever an interference is predicted to occur, to temporarily suspend signal transmission to avoid interference with the dominant devices.
- 14. In an apparatus having first and second wireless transceivers and at least one controller manager, a method of operation comprising:
(a) determining corresponding filtering to be employed by first and second network devices of first and second wireless networks operating in accordance with first and a second wireless protocols, respectively, to correspondingly cancel respective interference signals; and (b) operating the first wireless transceiver and the at least one controller manager to cause at least said first network devices to apply said determined filtering whenever an interference is predicted to occur between said first and second network devices of said first and second wireless networks.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein said determining includes determining first and second notch filters, inversely formed in accordance with transmit signals of said second and first network devices, for said first and second network devices.
- 16. The method of claim 14 further including operating the second wireless transceiver and the at least one controller manager to cause at least said second network devices to apply said determined filtering whenever an interference is predicted to occur between said first and second network devices of said first and second wireless networks.
- 17. A collection of networked apparatuses comprising:
a first plurality of apparatuses wirelessly networked together, with each apparatus being equipped to communicate wirelessly in accordance with a first protocol; a second plurality of apparatuses wirelessly networked together, with each apparatus being equipped to communicate wirelessly in accordance with a second protocol; and a master apparatus equipped to communicate wirelessly with said first and second plurality of apparatuses in accordance with said first and second protocols respectively, as well as equipped to coordinate transmit and receive operations conducted in accordance with said two protocols to enable a master device to manage and control said first and second plurality of apparatuses at the same time, including managing said first and second plurality of apparatuses to reduce interference with each other.
- 18. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 17, wherein the first protocol is a frequency hopping protocol comprising a plurality of frequencies employed in accordance with a pseudo random pattern, and the master apparatus includes a network manager equipped to determine a pseudo random frequency hopping pattern for first network devices of first wireless network.
- 19. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 18, wherein the network manager of the master apparatus is further equipped to predict when interference will occur between first and second network devices of first and second wireless networks, based on said determined pseudo random frequency hopping pattern.
- 20. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 17, wherein the network manager of the master apparatus is further equipped to select either first or said second network devices as dominated devices, to be operationally dominated by the non-selected first/second network devices.
- 21. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 20, wherein the network manager of the master apparatus is further equipped to preemptively notify the dominated devices, whenever an interference is predicted to occur, to temporarily suspend signal transmission operation to avoid interference with the dominant devices.
- 22. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 17, wherein the network manager of the master apparatus is further equipped to determine corresponding filtering to be employed by first and second network devices to correspondingly cancel respective interference signals whenever an interference is predicted to occur.
- 23. The collection of networked apparatuses of claim 22, wherein the network manager of the master apparatus is further equipped to determine first and second notch filters, inversely formed in accordance with transmit signals of said second and first network devices, for said first and second network devices.
- 24. An apparatus comprising:
at least one wireless transceiver; at least one controller manager operatively connected to the at least one wireless transceiver; and a network manager configured to select either first network devices of a first wireless network operating in accordance with a first wireless protocol, or second network devices of a second wireless network operating in accordance with a second wireless protocol, to be dominant devices that may be configured to operationally dominate at least one of the non-selected network devices of the other wireless network; wherein the at least one wireless transceiver and the at least one controller manager operate to configure at least one of the dominated devices to pro-actively avoid interference with the dominant devices to reduce interference arising between the first and second wireless networks.
- 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the first protocol is a frequency hopping protocol comprising a plurality of frequencies employed in accordance with a pseudo random pattern, and wherein the network manager is further operative to determine a pseudo random frequency hopping pattern for said first network devices of said first wireless network.
- 26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the network manager is further operative to predict when interference will occur between said first and second network devices of said first and second wireless networks, based on said determined pseudo random frequency hopping pattern.
- 27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the network manager is further operative to preemptively notify the at least one of the dominated devices, whenever an interference is predicted to occur, to temporarily suspend signal transmission to avoid interference with the dominant devices.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/439,946 filed on Nov. 12, 1999, entitled Multiple Wireless Communication Protocol Methods And Apparatuses, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/436,458, filed Nov. 8, 1999, entitled “A Wireless Apparatus Having A Transceiver Equipped To Support Multiple Wireless Communication Protocols”, and of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/408,725, filed on Sep. 29, 1999, entitled “A Wireless Apparatus Having Multiple Coordinated Transceivers For Multiple Wireless Communication Protocols”.
Continuations (1)
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Parent |
09439946 |
Nov 1999 |
US |
Child |
10464688 |
Jun 2003 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (2)
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Date |
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09436458 |
Nov 1999 |
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Child |
09439946 |
Nov 1999 |
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Parent |
09408725 |
Sep 1999 |
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09439946 |
Nov 1999 |
US |