Patent Application
20190090119
This disclosure relates generally to wireless status advertising, and more specifically, but not exclusively, to variable advertising for Bluetooth Low Energy devices.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) products which continuously advertise while running off of a small limited capacity battery can run into battery capacity and ESR limitations when the product is exposed to low temperatures. Such products do not limit or stop BLE advertising and microcontroller operation when exposed to low temperatures in order to keep the device from depleting its battery capacity or reset due to high equivalent series resistance (ESR) in the battery circuit or other circuits in the BLE product. A higher ESR can cause a significant drop in output voltage as load current increases and may not be acceptable in some systems. Hence, ESR may significantly decrease battery life and operational efficiency. Accordingly, there is a need for systems, apparatus, and methods that overcome the deficiencies of conventional approaches including the methods, system and apparatus provided hereby.
The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or more aspects and/or examples associated with the apparatus and methods disclosed herein. As such, the following summary should not be considered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects and/or examples, nor should the following summary be regarded to identify key or critical elements relating to all contemplated aspects and/or examples or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect and/or example. Accordingly, the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain concepts relating to one or more aspects and/or examples relating to the apparatus and methods disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the detailed description presented below.
In one aspect, a method includes initializing a mobile device configured to use a Bluetooth protocol for communication; setting an advertising interval to a first interval, the advertising interval configured to set a time period for transmitting an advertising packet; periodically transmitting the advertising packet at the first interval; monitoring a temperature, by a temperature sensor, of an environment surrounding the mobile device; setting the advertising interval to a second interval when the temperature reaches a first threshold or lower; and transmitting the advertising packet at the second interval
In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising: initializing a mobile device configured to use a Bluetooth protocol for communication; setting an advertising interval to a first interval, the advertising interval configured to set a time period for transmitting an advertising packet; periodically transmitting the advertising packet at the first interval; monitoring a temperature, by a temperature sensor, of an environment surrounding the mobile device; setting the advertising interval to a second interval when the temperature reaches a first threshold or lower; and transmitting the advertising packet at the second interval.
In still another aspect, a mobile device includes: a memory; a processor coupled to the memory; a temperature sensor coupled to the processor; the processor configured to: initialize the mobile device, the mobile device configured to use a Bluetooth protocol for communication; set an advertising interval to a first interval, the advertising interval configured to set a time period for transmitting an advertising packet; periodically transmit the advertising packet at the first interval; monitor a temperature, by the temperature sensor, of an environment surrounding the mobile device; set the advertising interval to a second interval when the temperature reaches a first threshold or lower; and transmit the advertising packet at the second interval.
Other features and advantages associated with the apparatus and methods disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the accompanying drawings and detailed description.
A more complete appreciation of aspects of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings which are presented solely for illustration and not limitation of the disclosure, and in which:
In accordance with common practice, the features depicted by the drawings may not be drawn to scale. Accordingly, the dimensions of the depicted features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. In accordance with common practice, some of the drawings are simplified for clarity. Thus, the drawings may not depict all components of a particular apparatus or method. Further, like reference numerals denote like features throughout the specification and figures.
The exemplary methods, apparatus, and systems disclosed herein mitigate shortcomings of the conventional methods, apparatus, and systems, as well as other previously unidentified needs. For example, a BLE controller may include an integrated temperature sensor. This temperature sensor can be monitored periodically to determine the ambient temperature. BLE devices that use coin cells or similar limited capacity batteries suffer from lower capacity and high ESR if the ambient temperature goes below 0 C. The BLE device performance may be improved by monitoring the ambient temperature and using this information to restrict operation of the device when the temperature is low enough to impact battery performance. In one example of a BLE device, such as a package tracker, when the package tracker is activated, it will advertise every few seconds allowing the courier to easily scan for active packages in their vicinity. If a package were to continuously advertise every few seconds when the temperature drops below 0 C as is likely the case in certain shipping environments, then the battery could get depleted very rapidly and it is possible that it would not last until the package gets delivered. In some examples of the disclosure, a BLE device monitors the temperature and when the ambient temperature goes below 0 C, or a programmable temperature level, the advertising interval can be reduced to only a few times per minute. If the temperature falls further to −20 C or lower, then BLE advertisements can be stopped completely and the controller kept in a low power state that only keeps track of time and temperature until the ambient temperature is again within the operational range. In this way, BLE advertisement intervals would be dependent on the ambient temperature of the device.
The temperature thresholds may be configured to include a hysteresis effect at the temperature switch points in order to keep a device from continually changing advertising intervals as the temperature momentarily reaches a switch point but drops below or goes above before reversing direction. For example, the temperature drops to 0 C for a few seconds then goes back above 0 C. Using a hysteresis effect or function, the device may be prevented from changing the advertising interval back and forth due to momentary fluctuations in the temperature. In one example, the temperature may be monitored so that the temperature must fall below the threshold (e.g., 0 C) for more than 10 seconds before the device will switch the advertising interval. In another example, the hysteresis effect may be implemented by requiring more than crossing the temperature threshold by a fraction of a degree such that the BLE radio may be programmed to go from a high advertising rate to a lower rate at 0 C. Once it is in the lower advertising rate it will not switch back to the higher rate until the temperature rises above 1 C (or some other temperature high enough above 0 C to prevent continuous switching). This would ensure that the device will not continuously be changing advertising intervals if there is some noise on the temperature sensor reading and the temperature is hovering around a switch point. The time or temperature ranges for the hysteresis effect may be programmable for a desired lag/range.
The first mobile device 100 may be configured to use a Bluetooth protocol for communication, such as Bluetooth Low Energy protocol. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to set an advertising interval to a first interval, the advertising interval configured to set a time period for transmitting an advertising packet (e.g., advertising packet 200) using antenna 120. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to periodically transmit the advertising packet at the first interval using antenna 120. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to monitor a temperature using the temperature sensor 110 of an environment surrounding the first mobile device 100 (e.g., ambient temperature). The first mobile device 100 may be configured to set the advertising interval to a second interval when the temperature reaches a first threshold or lower. After setting the advertising interval to the second advertising interval, the first mobile device 100 may be configured to transmit the advertising packet at the second interval. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to set the second interval longer than the first interval and set the first threshold to 0 C or other programmable temperature at which battery efficiency may be impacted. The first interval may be a fixed delay of approximately 10 milliseconds to 10.24 seconds plus a random delay of approximately 0 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds. The second interval may set to 11 seconds or longer. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to set the advertising interval to a third interval when the temperature reaches a second threshold or lower where the third interval is longer than the second interval. The third interval may be one minute or longer, for example. Alternatively, the first mobile device 100 may be configured to stop transmission of the advertising packet and configure the first mobile device 100 to operate in a low power state when the temperature reaches a second threshold or lower. The second threshold may be −20 C or other programmable temperature at which battery efficiency may be drastically impacted. The first mobile device 100 may be configured to set the advertising interval from the second interval to the first interval when the temperature exceeds the first threshold, set the advertising interval from the third interval to the second interval when the temperature exceeds the third threshold but not the second threshold, and set the advertising interval from third interval to the first interval when the temperature exceeds the third threshold and the second threshold.
As mentioned above, the first mobile device 100 may be configured to use the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol and implement the BLE advertising service (see, for example, the Bluetooth specification 4.2). The BLE advertising is one of the most important aspects of Bluetooth Low Energy and may help lower the power consumption, speed up connections, and improve reliability. BLE has two ways of communicating. The first one is using advertisements, where a BLE enabled device broadcasts packets to every device around it. The receiving device can then act on this information or connect to receive more information. The second way to communicate is to receive packets using a connection, where both the sending device and the connected device both send packets. A connection may be used to transmit information to another device only or establish a connection between two devices using advertisements. A BLE device sleeps most of the time, waking up only to advertise and connect when needed. This means advertisements have a big impact on power consumption. The advertising interval may be critical in conserving battery power and making quick connections. Advertising is by design unidirectional. A single BLE enable device may advertise to multiple devices in the area. BLE enabled devices may include a BLE Physical Layer. The BLE Physical Layer is in charge of actually sending the signals over the air. This includes the actual RF radio frequency (RF) antenna.
As mentioned above, the temperature thresholds may be configured to include a hysteresis effect at the temperature switch points (e.g., the first threshold and the second threshold) in order to keep the first mobile device 100 from continually changing advertising intervals as the ambient temperature momentarily reaches a switch point but drops below or goes above before reversing direction. For example, the temperature drops to 0 C for a few seconds then goes back above 0 C. Using a hysteresis effect or function, the first mobile device 100 may be prevented from changing the advertising interval back and forth due to momentary fluctuations in the ambient temperature. In one example, the temperature may be monitored so that the temperature must fall below the first threshold (e.g., 0 C) for more than 10 seconds before the first mobile device 100 will switch the advertising interval from the first interval to the second interval. In another example, the hysteresis effect may be implemented by requiring more than crossing the temperature threshold by a fraction of a degree such that the first mobile device 100 may be programmed to go from the first interval to the second interval at the first threshold of 0 C. Once it is in the second interval advertising rate it will not switch back to the first interval until the temperature rises above 1 C (or some other temperature high enough above 0 C to prevent continuous switching). This would ensure that the first mobile device 100 will not continuously be changing advertising intervals if there is some noise on the temperature sensor 110 reading and the temperature is hovering around the first or second threshold. The time or temperature ranges for the hysteresis effect may be programmable for a desired lag/range.
BLE shares some similarities with Classic Bluetooth. Both use the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Basic Rate (BR) and BLE both use Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) modulation at 1 Mbps, but their modulation index is different. Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) uses a completely different modulation than GFSK. Classic Bluetooth has 79 channels compared to BLE's 40 channels. The channels are also spaced differently. Both of these differences make BLE and Classic Bluetooth different and incompatible, so they cannot communicate. The first mobile device 100 may also be configured with Dual Mode Radios that support both BLE and Classic Bluetooth by switching their modulation parameters and the channels on which the mobile device 100 is running. The 2.4 GHz spectrum for Classic Bluetooth extends from 2402 MHz to 2480 MHz while BLE uses 40 1 MHz wide channels, numbered 0 to 39. Each is separated by 2 MHz Channels 37, 38, and 39 are typically used only for sending advertisement packets. The rest are used for data exchange during a connection.
During BLE advertisement, the first mobile device 100 may transmit packets on the 3 advertising channels one after the other. The second device 130 may scan for devices or beacons and listen to those channels for the advertising packets, which helps it discover devices nearby. Channels 37, 38 and 39 may be spread across the 2.4 GHz spectrum with channels 37 and 39 being the first and last channels in the band, while 38 is in the middle. If any single advertising channel is blocked, the other channels are likely to be free since they are separated by quite a few MHz of bandwidth. This is especially true since most other devices that interfere with BLE are narrow band. Channel 38 in particular was placed between Wi-Fi channels 1 and 6 so it avoids the Wi-Fi signal. The wide spacing of the advertisement channels helps BLE better manage the interference from Wi-Fi, Classic Bluetooth, Microwaves, Baby Monitors, etc. to ensure that advertisements succeed.
When the first mobile device 100 is in advertising mode, advertising packets may be sent periodically on each advertising channel. The time interval between packets may have both a fixed interval and a random delay. The first mobile device 100 may set the fixed interval from 20 milliseconds to 10.24 seconds, in steps of 0.625 milliseconds, for example. The random delay may be a pseudo-random value from 0 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds that is automatically added. This randomness helps reduce the possibility of collisions between advertisements of different devices. Since finding advertisements may be critical, avoiding collisions at all costs may be extremely important. Alternatively, the first mobile device 100 may be configured to advertise on just one or two channels, not all three to save power. The advertising interval may be separate from the connection interval to avoid interference.
The PDU 210 may be configured to provide information to the second device 130, such as package information in a package tracking application. The PDU 210 may have a variable payload 260 that contains the information.
After the advertisement address 296, which may be referred to as the Bluetooth MAC Address although that may change at will, the ADV_IND 290 is left with 37−6=31 bytes for actual advertisement data structures. These may to fit a length, type, and data as desired. At the lowest level, the advertisement has 31 bytes that can advertise any number of different things and each data type may specify a different standard of data in the ADV_IND payload 295. Since the number of advertising data structures is variable, they may be combined as needed to advertise the desired information to the second device 130.
As mentioned above, in the partial process 300, the temperature thresholds may be configured to include a hysteresis effect at the temperature switch points (e.g., the first threshold and the second threshold) in order to keep the mobile device from continually changing advertising intervals as the ambient temperature momentarily reaches a switch point but drops below or goes above before reversing direction. For example, the temperature drops to 0 C for a few seconds then goes back above 0 C. Using a hysteresis effect or function, the mobile device may be prevented from changing the advertising interval back and forth due to momentary fluctuations in the ambient temperature. In one example, the temperature may be monitored so that the temperature must fall below the first threshold (e.g., 0 C) for more than 10 seconds before the mobile device will switch the advertising interval from the first interval to the second interval. In another example, the hysteresis effect may be implemented by requiring more than crossing the temperature threshold by a fraction of a degree such that the mobile device may be programmed to go from the first interval to the second interval at the first threshold of 0 C. Once it is in the second interval advertising rate it will not switch back to the first interval until the temperature rises above 1 C (or some other temperature high enough above 0 C to prevent continuous switching). This would ensure that the mobile device Twill not continuously be changing advertising intervals if there is some noise on the temperature sensor reading and the temperature is hovering around the first or second threshold. The time or temperature ranges for the hysteresis effect may be programmable for a desired lag/range.
Processor 401 may be communicatively coupled to memory 432. Mobile device 400 also include display 428 and display controller 426, with display controller 426 coupled to processor 401 and to display 428.
In some aspects,
In a particular aspect, where one or more of the above-mentioned blocks are present, processor 401, display controller 426, memory 432, CODEC 434, and wireless controller 440 can be included in a system-in-package or system-on-chip device 422. Input device 430 (e.g., physical or virtual keyboard), power supply 444 (e.g., battery), display 428, input device 430, speaker 436, microphone 438, wireless antenna 442, and power supply 444 may be external to system-on-chip device 422 and may be coupled to a component of system-on-chip device 422, such as an interface or a controller.
It should be noted that although
It will be appreciated that various aspects disclosed herein can be described as functional equivalents to the structures, materials and/or devices described and/or recognized by those skilled in the art. For example, in one aspect, an apparatus may comprise a means for communicating (see, e.g., 100 in
One or more of the components, processes, features, and/or functions illustrated in
In this description, certain terminology is used to describe certain features. The term “mobile device” can describe, and is not limited to, a music player, a video player, an entertainment unit, a navigation device, a communications device, a mobile device, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant, a fixed location terminal, a tablet computer, a computer, a wearable device, a laptop computer, a server, an automotive device in an automotive vehicle, and/or other types of portable electronic devices typically carried by a person and/or having communication capabilities (e.g., wireless, cellular, infrared, short-range radio, etc.). Further, the terms “user equipment” (UE), “mobile terminal,” “mobile device,” and “wireless device,” can be interchangeable.
The wireless communication between electronic devices can be based on different technologies, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), W-CDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), Bluetooth (BT), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or other protocols that may be used in a wireless communications network or a data communications network. Bluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth LE, BLE, and Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group intended to provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost while maintaining a similar communication range. BLE was merged into the main Bluetooth standard in 2010 with the adoption of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.2 and updated in Bluetooth 5 (both expressly incorporated herein in their entirety).
The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any details described herein as “exemplary” is not to be construed as advantageous over other examples. Likewise, the term “examples” does not mean that all examples include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation. Furthermore, a particular feature and/or structure can be combined with one or more other features and/or structures. Moreover, at least a portion of the apparatus described hereby can be configured to perform at least a portion of a method described hereby.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples and is not intended to be limiting of examples of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, actions, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, actions, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It should be noted that the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof, mean any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between elements, and can encompass a presence of an intermediate element between two elements that are “connected” or “coupled” together via the intermediate element.
Any reference herein to an element using a designation such as “first,” “second,” and so forth does not limit the quantity and/or order of those elements. Rather, these designations are used as a convenient method of distinguishing between two or more elements and/or instances of an element. Also, unless stated otherwise, a set of elements can comprise one or more elements.
Further, many examples are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, these sequence of actions described herein can be considered to be incorporated entirely within any form of computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon execution would cause an associated processor to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure may be incorporated in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the examples described herein, the corresponding form of any such examples may be described herein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the described action.
Nothing stated or illustrated depicted in this application is intended to dedicate any component, action, feature, benefit, advantage, or equivalent to the public, regardless of whether the component, action, feature, benefit, advantage, or the equivalent is recited in the claims.
Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm actions described in connection with the examples disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and actions have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.
The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection with the examples disclosed herein may be incorporated directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art including non-transitory types of memory or storage mediums. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).
Although some aspects have been described in connection with a device, it goes without saying that these aspects also constitute a description of the corresponding method, and so a block or a component of a device should also be understood as a corresponding method action or as a feature of a method action. Analogously thereto, aspects described in connection with or as a method action also constitute a description of a corresponding block or detail or feature of a corresponding device. Some or all of the method actions can be performed by a hardware apparatus (or using a hardware apparatus), such as, for example, a microprocessor, a programmable computer or an electronic circuit. In some examples, some or a plurality of the most important method actions can be performed by such an apparatus.
In the detailed description above it can be seen that different features are grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the claimed examples have more features than are explicitly mentioned in the respective claim. Rather, the disclosure may include fewer than all features of an individual example disclosed. Therefore, the following claims should hereby be deemed to be incorporated in the description, wherein each claim by itself can stand as a separate example. Although each claim by itself can stand as a separate example, it should be noted that—although a dependent claim can refer in the claims to a specific combination with one or a plurality of claims-other examples can also encompass or include a combination of said dependent claim with the subject matter of any other dependent claim or a combination of any feature with other dependent and independent claims. Such combinations are proposed herein, unless it is explicitly expressed that a specific combination is not intended. Furthermore, it is also intended that features of a claim can be included in any other independent claim, even if said claim is not directly dependent on the independent claim.
It should furthermore be noted that methods, systems, and apparatus disclosed in the description or in the claims can be implemented by a device comprising means for performing the respective actions of this method.
Furthermore, in some examples, an individual action can be subdivided into a plurality of sub-actions or contain a plurality of sub-actions. Such sub-actions can be contained in the disclosure of the individual action and be part of the disclosure of the individual action.
While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative examples of the disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions and/or actions of the method claims in accordance with the examples of the disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Additionally, well-known elements will not be described in detail or may be omitted so as to not obscure the relevant details of the aspects and examples disclosed herein. Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.
The present application for patent claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/560,136, entitled “SYSTEMS, APPARATUS, AND METHODS FOR VARIABLE ADVERTISING”, filed Sep. 18, 2017, assigned to the assignee hereof, and expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62560136 | Sep 2017 | US |
