Fast paging method, bluetooth system and bluetooth connection method using the same

Abstract

There is provided a fast paging procedure in which a master device repeatedly sends the paging message to a slave device using predetermined channel frequencies, wherein a selection of the predetermined channel frequencies is not calculated or predicted from the slave's Bluetooth device address. When the master device receives a slave page response message at one frequency among the predetermined channel frequencies, the master device transmits an FHS packet to the slave device at the same frequency in which the slave page response message was received.

Claims

1. A paging method of a master device, performed in a page substate of the master device for connecting to a slave device in a page scan substate, the paging method comprising: repeatedly transmitting a paging message sequentially from a first frequency to a last frequency among multiple predetermined frequencies in a fixed sequence; listening a slave page response message sent at one of the multiple predetermined frequencies; and transmitting an frequency hop synchronization (FHS) packet at the one of the multiple predetermined frequencies which the slave page response message is listened.

2. The paging method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the paging message and the slave page response message comprise a device access code (DAC) of the slave device.

3. The paging method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first frequency is a lowest frequency, a highest frequency or any frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies, and a sequence from the first frequency to the last frequency is a fixed pattern or a random pattern.

4. The paging method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies are selected before shipment of the master device.

5. The paging method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies are not calculated from a Bluetooth device address of the slave device.

6. The paging method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies has a number of 2, 4 or 8 frequencies.

7. The paging method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the 4 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 0, 16, 32 and 64 or 0, 24, 48 and 72 among 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth.

8. A Bluetooth system, comprising: a master device configured to repeatedly transmit a paging message sequentially at multiple predetermined frequencies in a fixed sequence; and a slave device configured to receive the paging message and respond a slave page response message at one frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies, wherein the master device is further configured to transmit an frequency hop synchronization (FHS) packet to the slave device at the same frequency receiving the slave page response message.

9. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the master device is configured as a secondary master and a primary slave, and the master device is further configured to have a synchronous link with a primary master.

10. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the master device and slave device are respectively one of a pair of earphones.

11. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the paging message and the slave page response message comprise a device access code (DAC) of the slave device.

12. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the slave device is further configured to respond another page response message to the master device at the same frequency receiving the FHS packet.

13. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies are not calculated from a Bluetooth device address of the slave device.

14. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies has a number of 2, 4 or 8 frequencies.

15. The Bluetooth system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the 4 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 0, 16, 32 and 64 or 0, 24, 48 and 72 among 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth.

16. A Bluetooth connection method between a master device and a slave device, the method comprising: repeatedly transmitting, by the master device, a paging message sequentially at multiple predetermined frequencies to the slave device in a fixed sequence; responding, by the slave device, a slave page response message at one frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies to the master device; transmitting, by the master device, an frequency hop synchronization (FHS) packet to the slave device at the same frequency receiving the slave page response message to the slave device; responding, by the slave device, another page response message at the same frequency receiving the FHS packet to the master device; and transmitting, by the master device after receiving the another page response message, a POLL packet using a new hopping sequence determined according to a Bluetooth device address of the master device.

17. The Bluetooth connection method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies are not calculated from a Bluetooth device address of the slave device.

18. The Bluetooth connection method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies are selected equally over 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth.

19. The Bluetooth connection method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies has a number of 2 frequencies, and the 2 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 0 and 32, at channels 0 and 24, at channels 16 and 64 or at channels 48 and 72 among 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth.

20. The Bluetooth connection method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the multiple predetermined frequencies has a number of 4 frequencies, and the 4 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 0, 16, 32 and 64 or 0, 24, 48 and 72 among 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the conventional paging procedure in which the slave responds to the first paging message.

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the conventional paging procedure in which the slave responds to the second paging message.

(4) FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a Bluetooth system adopting a fast paging procedure of the present disclosure.

(5) FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a slave device responds to a paging message at a first predetermined frequency.

(6) FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a slave device responds to a paging message at a second predetermined frequency.

(7) FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a slave device responds to a paging message at a fourth predetermined frequency.

(8) FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure according to an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a master device does not receive a response message from a slave device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

(9) It should be noted that, wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

(10) One objective of the present disclosure is to facilitate the setup of an initial connection between a master device 31 and a slave device 32 of a Bluetooth system without estimating the slave's Bluetooth clock according to the Bluetooth device address (BD_ADDR) of the slave device 32. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a Bluetooth system adopting a fast paging procedure of the present disclosure.

(11) In one non-limiting embodiment, the paging procedure of the present disclosure is applied to an application requiring fast Bluetooth connection. For example, the master device 31 of the present disclosure is operated as both a secondary master (Master 2 shown in FIG. 3) and a primary slave (Slave 1 shown in FIG. 3). The master device 31 is one of a pair of Bluetooth earphones, and the slave device 32 is the other one of said pair of Bluetooth earphones.

(12) FIG. 3 shows that the master device 31 and the slave device 32 are used to form a piconet 2; meanwhile, the master device 31 is further used to form a piconet 1 with a primary master 33 before the piconet 2 is formed. That is, in forming the piconet 2 the master device 31 already has a synchronous link with the primary master 33 (e.g., a smartphone or recording pen shown as Master 1 in FIG. 3) to receive audio signals therefrom. Accordingly, the initial connection between the master device 31 and the slave device 32 is not allowed to use synchronous slots between the master device 31 and the primary master 33. If the conventional paging procedure is used, it may take a longer time to set up the initial connection since fewer time slots are allowed to be used for the connection between the master device 31 and the slave device 32.

(13) In the case that the piconet 2 is set up before the piconet 1, the fast paging procedure of the present disclosure is no longer necessary, i.e. the page substate and the page scan substate mentioned below no longer being entered.

(14) The present disclosure is further applicable to a quick point-to-point link reconnection if it is lost during streaming.

(15) Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, they are schematic diagrams of a paging procedure of a Bluetooth connection method used in a Bluetooth system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It is shown that the slave device 32 receives a paging message at a first predetermined frequency Ch0 (e.g., FIG. 4) or at a second predetermined frequency Ch32 (e.g., FIG. 5), and then responds a slave page response message at the first predetermined frequency Ch0 or at the second predetermined frequency Ch32.

(16) In step 1, after the inquiry procedure, the master device 31 is in a page substate and the slave device 32 is in a page scan substate. The master device 31 repeatedly transmits, e.g., via a Bluetooth antenna thereof, a paging message PAGE sequentially (the used frequency being changed every 312.5 s) at multiple predetermined frequencies. For example, in FIGS. 4 and 5, a number of the multiple predetermined frequencies is set as 2, and said 2 frequencies, e.g., Ch0 and Ch32 herein, are set previously and fixed at channels 0 and 32 among 79 radio frequency (RF) channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the 2 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 16 and 64 or other pairs among or not among the 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of Bluetooth without particular limitations.

(17) To facilitate the initial connection, the multiple predetermined frequencies are not calculated or predicted by the master device 31 using a Bluetooth device address (BD_ADDR) of the slave device 32, which is obtained during the last encounter with the slave device 32 or from an inquiry procedure. Preferably, the multiple predetermined frequencies, e.g., Ch0 and Ch32 herein, are selected before shipment of the master device 31 and the slave device 32 and respectively defined therein. The paging messages PAGE in FIGS. 4 and 5 are identical and include a device access code (DAC) of the slave device 32, which is also obtained during the last encounter with the slave device 32 or from an inquiry procedure.

(18) In FIGS. 4 and 5, a paging message PAGE is firstly transmitted at frequency Ch0 and then transmitted at frequency Ch32 separated by 312.5 s, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In another aspect, the master device 31 transmits the paging message PAGE at frequency Ch32 at first and then at frequency Ch0.

(19) Step 2 (also referred to a slave response substate): The slave device 32 listens the paging message PAGE at one of the multiple predetermined frequencies, e.g., Ch0 and Ch32 herein, for e.g., 1.28 second sent in the transmit interval of the master device 31, but not limited thereto as long as it is longer than 10 ms. As only two channels are listened, the slave device 32 can quickly receive the paging message PAGE at the channel thereof. On receiving the paging message PAGE at one frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies, the slave device 32 responds, e.g., via a Bluetooth antenna thereof, a slave page response message at said one frequency (i.e. the frequency that the slave device 32 receives the paging message PAGE) among the multiple predetermined frequencies to the master device 31 in the RX slot of the master device 31 in step 2. The slave page response message also contains the device access code of the slave device 32.

(20) Step 3 (also referred to a master response substate): When receiving the slave page response message in step 2, the master device 31 then transmits an FHS packet in step 3 to the slave device 32 at the same frequency receiving the slave page response message. The FHS packet contains the Bluetooth device address and the clock of the master device 31 to be provided to the slave device 32. For example, in FIG. 4 the slave device 32 sends the slave page response message at frequency Ch0 in step 2, and then the master device 31 transmits the FHS packet at the frequency Ch0 in step 3; whereas, in FIG. 5 the slave device 32 sends the slave page response message at frequency Ch32 in step 2, and then the master device 31 transmits the FHS packet at the frequency Ch32 in step 3.

(21) Step 4 (also referred to slave response substate): After receiving the FHS packet in step 3, the slave device 32 responds in step 4 another page response message (also containing slave's BD_ADDR) at the same frequency, e.g., Ch0 in FIG. 4 and Ch32 in FIG. 5, receiving the FHS packet to the master device 31 to acknowledge reception of the FHS packet.

(22) In step 5, the master device 31 and the slave device 32 both enter a connection state, and the master device 31 transmits a POLL packet using a new hopping sequence determined according to a Bluetooth device address of the master device 31 after receiving the acknowledgement indicating by the another page response message transmitted by the slave device 32 in step 4. The determination of the basic channel hopping sequence is based on the regular setting of Bluetooth communication, and thus details thereof are not described herein.

(23) The time slot of every step from step 1 to step 6 is set as 625 s. Details of the FHS packet and the POLL packet are known to the art, and thus details thereof are not described herein.

(24) Referring to FIG. 6, it is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure of a Bluetooth connection method used in a Bluetooth system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a slave device 32 responds to a paging message at a fourth predetermined frequency. In FIG. 6, a number of the multiple predetermined frequencies (or channels) is set as 4, and the slave device 32 does not respond a slave page response message to the master device 31 at the frequency Ch0, Ch16 or Ch32 in this embodiment.

(25) Preferably, in the present disclosure the multiple predetermined frequencies are selected equally over the 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of regular Bluetooth. The reason to separate the multiple predetermined frequencies as far as possible is to avoid interference from WiFi signal, noises and other Bluetooth links. For example, the 4 frequencies are set previously and fixed at channels 0, 24, 48 and 72 among the 79 RF channels of basic piconet physical channels of regular Bluetooth, but not limited thereto.

(26) In the case that the multiple predetermined frequencies include more than 2 frequencies, the master device 31 is arranged to transmit a paging message PAGE sequentially from a first frequency to a last frequency (changing every 312.5 s in TX slots) among the multiple predetermined frequencies, and the paging message PAGE is transmitted always starting from the first frequency.

(27) For example, if the first frequency is a lowest frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies, e.g., Ch0, Ch16, Ch32 and Ch64, the master device 31 transmits the paging message PAGE starting from the frequency Ch0, and then transmits the paging message PAGE at frequencies in a sequence of Ch16, Ch32 and Ch64 every 312.5 s in TX slots, and repeatedly in a fixed sequence Ch0, Ch16, Ch32 and Ch64 if no response is received.

(28) FIG. 6 shows that the master device 31 sequentially transmits the paging message P AGE at frequencies Ch0 and Ch16 in slot 1. If the master device 31 does not receive a response in slot 2 the master device 31 further sequentially transmits the paging message PAGE at frequencies Ch32 and Ch64 in slot 3 till a response from the slave device 32 is received, e.g., FIG. 6 showing the slave device 32 receives the paging message at the frequency Ch32 in slot 3 and a slave page response message being received at the frequency Ch32 in slot 4. If a response is not received in slot 4, the master device 31 transmits the paging message PAGE from the frequency Ch0 again in the next slot till the paging procedure is shut down or a response is received.

(29) On the other hand, if the first frequency is a highest frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies, e.g., Ch0, Ch16, Ch32 and Ch64, the master device 31 transmits the paging message PAGE starting from the frequency Ch64, and then transmits the paging message PAGE at frequencies in a sequence of Ch32, Ch16 and Ch0 every 312.5 s in TX slots, and repeatedly in a fixed sequence Ch64, Ch32, Ch16 and Ch0 if no response is received.

(30) In the present disclosure, a start frequency (e.g., the first frequency) is selected from any one of the multiple predetermined frequencies as long as it is determined previously. A sequence from the start frequency to the last frequency among the multiple predetermined frequencies is a fixed pattern (e.g., from low to high or from high to low) or a random pattern in every fast paging procedure.

(31) Please referring to FIG. 7, it shows that if the master device 31 does not receive any response message from the slave device 32, the master device 31 repeatedly transmits the paging message PAGE at the multiple predetermined frequencies till a response message is received.

(32) In the present disclosure, the paging message PAGE is transmitted always starting from the first frequency, and the start frequency (e.g. Ch0 in slot 1 of FIGS. 3-6) is not calculated or predicted from any message received from the slave device 32. The slave device 32 either receives the paging message PAGE at one of the multiple predetermined frequencies, or changes to another frequency every 1.28 s.

(33) Then, the master device 31 listens a slave page response message in slot 4 sent at one of the multiple predetermined frequencies, e.g., Ch64 shown in FIG. 6, and then transmits an FHS packet in slot 5 at the same frequency, e.g., Ch64 shown in FIG. 6, which the slave page response message is sent in slot 4. The slave device 32 responds another page response message in slot 6 to acknowledge reception of the FHS packet.

(34) In slot 7, the master device 31 and the slave device 32 enter a connection state. The master device 31 transmits a POLL packet as a first traffic in slot 7, and the slave device 32 responds any type of packet to the master device 31 in slot 8 as a response traffic. As mentioned above, the determination of frequencies of g(m) and g(m+1) utilizes the basic channel hopping sequence based on regular Bluetooth paging procedure.

(35) It should be mentioned that in the present disclosure, the determination of whether the master device 31 and slave device 32 receive a transmitted message from the opposite side is identical to the regular Bluetooth paging procedure, and thus details thereof are not described herein.

(36) As mentioned above, in the regular Bluetooth paging procedure, the master has to estimate the slave's Bluetooth clock and changes the frequency in different transmit slots based on page hopping sequence. Due to the channel drift of the slave and a large amount of hoping frequencies and TX slots being used, it may be time consuming to set up a connection. Accordingly, the present disclosure further provides a Bluetooth system (e.g., FIG. 3) and a paging method thereof (e.g., FIGS. 4-6) that use fewer TX slots and fewer predetermined frequencies not calculated or predicted from the slave's Bluetooth device address (BD_ADDR) to transmit the paging message, response message and FHS packet to facilitate the initial connection between the master and slave.

(37) Although the disclosure has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is not used to limit the disclosure. It is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as hereinafter claimed.