KR20020024329A - Local data delivery through beacons - Google Patents

Abstract

The communication system includes first and second beacon devices 12, 14 capable of wireless message transmission and at least one portable communication device 10 capable of receiving such message transmission. The first beacon device is arranged to broadcast a series of inquiry messages (INQ) in accordance with a first communication protocol such as Bluetooth. The portable device 10 detects this inquiry message and responds with an identifier for the portable device. The first beacon device 12 then transmits the received identifier to the second beacon device 14, the second beacon device 14 and the portable device 10, the second beacon device receives the identifier of the portable device It is configured to perform a service interaction when triggered.

Description

LOCAL DATA DELIVERY THROUGH BEACONS}

Subscribers in mobile telephony networks have increased worldwide in recent years, and because of advances in technology and the addition of features, cellular phones have become personally trusted devices. As a result, a mobile information society is developing in which personalized and localized services are becoming increasingly important. Such "Context-Aware" mobile phones are being used with low power, short range base stations to provide location-specific information in places such as shopping malls. This information may include local maps, information about nearby shops and restaurants, and the like. The user's CA terminal may be equipped to filter the received information according to pre-stored user preferences, the user being alerted only when a data item of particular interest is received.

An example of a CA terminal is given in US Pat. No. 5,835,861, which discloses the use of a wireless telephone in the context of an advertising bulletin board. The user of the wireless telephone sends a prompt signal to the active advertisement source by operating his wireless telephone and receives a response signal containing the telephone number of the advertising vendor from the advertising source. Get your vendor's phone number. This telephone number can then be used to automatically call the vendor through a public switched telephone network. Optionally, this phone number can then be stored for use. This arrangement can be used to call a vendor without having to remember or record the telephone number. The signal between the bulletin board and the caller may be transmitted as a modulated infrared (IR) signal.

An important requirement for CA devices is that the user does not have to take action such as being adjacent to the beacon while the connection between the portable device and the beacon is established (as in the case of the system described above in US Pat. No. 5,835,861). It will be appreciated that these devices are quickly and effectively gathering data from the beacon so that there is no need to specifically initiate an interaction.

An existing method for implementing wireless beacons is to perform a two step connection process starting with the discovery of a device and then using the same device to actually transmit the information. Bluetooth, one of the technologies / protocols available to build such a system, requires that the discovery phase be completed before transmission occurs. When used in a dynamic mobile environment, the time this process takes can often be longer than the actual time the device is in range, preventing information from reaching the client.

From this, two issues are important when relaying information through a beacon to a mobile client, the first of which is the time it takes for the transaction to complete. Due to client movement and generally a small range of beacons, the time it takes for the processing to take place is important. If the time for this processing to be fully performed (ie, from the inquiry phase to the actual service processing) is too long, the client may be out of range of that beacon and may not receive service information.

The second problem is the power consumption of the mobile device. Because mobile devices require small size and light weight, power consumption becomes a problem when adding additional features to the device. Many individual beacons, each performing their own query, require the device to send frequently. This can quickly consume the available power because each transmission requires significantly more power than reception.

The present invention relates in particular to services provided to users of electronic equipment, not limited to users of mobile communication devices such as portable telephones and suitably equipped PDAs (personal digital assistant terminals). The invention further relates to a means for the transmission of such a service and a portable device for receiving the service.

1 is a simplified block diagram of a beacon and a portable device implementing the present invention.

2 is a simplified block diagram illustrating handover and message establishment in a system of multiple beacons.

3 is a schematic diagram of a beacon distribution for an interconnected system at a location such as a store.

4 is a schematic diagram of a series of devices in a linked beacon infrastructure.

5 is a chart illustrating the transmission of a train of inquiry access codes centered on a given frequency.

6 shows the alternation between trains of inquiry messages for the duration of an inquiry broadcast;

7 illustrates insertion of a packet of broadcast data into an existing transmission slot.

8 illustrates a first arrangement for transmitting beacon clock data in the order of the inquiry message train.

9 illustrates an arrangement different from that of FIG. 8 for transmitting beacon clock data.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data transmission system via a beacon in which the establishment of a link between the beacon and the portable device can occur relatively quickly without excessive power consumption on the portable device.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a communication system comprising first and second beacon devices capable of wireless message transmission and at least one portable device capable of receiving such message transmission, wherein said first system is provided. The one beacon device is arranged to broadcast a series of inquiry messages according to a first communication protocol, wherein at least one portable device is arranged to detect the inquiry message and respond with an identifier for the portable device, wherein the first A beacon device is arranged to send a received identifier to the second beacon device, wherein the second beacon device and the portable device are configured to perform a service interaction when the second beacon device is triggered by receiving the portable device identifier. It is composed.

The foregoing requires the portable device to proceed through both the inquiry process and the paging process, while the ability of the first beacon to send out the inquiry packet continuously makes the process faster. In addition, by having the second beacon handle all conversations, the first beacon device does not need to pause the operation to send a page message and also stop to enable interactive traffic. There will be no. As a result, the portable device does not have to wait for the first beacon device to enter the inquiry mode, which represents a significant time saving.

The system may include only one or a plurality of second beacon devices, each second beacon device arranged to receive an identifier from the first beacon device, wherein the second beacon device is arranged to receive the first beacon for transmission of the received identifier. There is an appropriate safety data channel that links to the two beacon devices or to each second beacon device.

The second beacon device may periodically update and maintain a list of identifiers for the portable device on which the service conversation is being performed. In order to eliminate redundant entries, the system may be equipped with a timer, and the second beacon device is configured to remove the portable device identifier from the list if the conversation does not take place for a predetermined period of time. Alternatively, or in addition, the second beacon device may remove the portable device identifier from the list if a duplicate copy of the identifier is received from the first beacon device. As another alternative, the second beacon device may remove the portable device identifier from the list if the conversation includes receiving a predetermined message requesting removal from the portable device, ie if the user specifically terminates the conversation. can do.

Extending the system, each inquiry message may be in the form of a plurality of data fields arranged according to the first communication protocol, wherein the first beacon device is further arranged to add additional data fields to each inquiry message before transmission, at least One portable device is arranged to receive the transmitted inquiry message and to read data from the additional data field. This additional data field, which provides piggy-back transmission of the broadcast message on the inquiry message, is properly positioned at the end of each inquiry message, and is the first communication protocol to properly (but not necessarily) include Bluetooth messaging. It can be ignored by a non-broadcast terminal that supports.

With such broadcast on the inquiry message, the first beacon device is suitably configured to broadcast a series of inquiry messages on a predetermined clock continuous frequency, wherein clock information for the first beacon device is carried by the additional data field. Included in

According to the present invention, there is also provided a mobile communication device for use in the above-mentioned system, which device is capable of receiving a short range wireless inquiry message and an identifier for the device which processes the data contained in the message. Processing means operable to compose a response message comprising a; and sending means configured to wirelessly transmit the created response message to a source of an inquiry message.

In accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a communications infrastructure for use with a mobile communication device in the above-mentioned system, the infrastructure comprising first and second beacon devices and interconnections between these devices. And wherein the beacon device is capable of transmitting a wireless message to the at least one portable device, wherein the first beacon is operable to broadcast a series of inquiry messages in accordance with a first communication protocol. Detect any response message that includes the portable device identifier and transmit the received identifier to the second beacon, where the second beacon receives a portable device identifier to initiate a service conversation with the portable device when triggered. Configured to perform. In such infrastructure, the interconnect between the first and second beacon devices may suitably include a secure data channel to provide security for the mobile device identifier.

Such communication infrastructure may further comprise a plurality of first and / or second beacons, suitably arranged in a network. In this infrastructure, message management means are appropriately provided to enable to initiate and execute a handover of an ongoing message transmission session from one of the plurality of second beacons to another beacon.

Additionally in accordance with the present invention, a method is provided for allowing a user of a portable communication device to perform a service conversation with a beacon device in an environment comprising at least first and second beacon devices capable of wireless messages, wherein The 1 beacon broadcasts a series of inquiry messages according to the first communication protocol and the user portable device detects the inquiry message and responds with an identifier for the portable device, and the first beacon device sends the received identifier to the second beacon And the second beacon and the portable device perform the service conversation when the second beacon is triggered by receiving the portable device identifier.

Other features and advantages of the invention are set forth in the appended claims, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, and which now direct the reader.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are now described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following detailed description, consider a CA application in particular using the Bluetooth protocol for transferring messages from a beacon to a portable device (telephone, PDA, or otherwise). As can be appreciated, the general inventive concept of linking with a beacon with a subsidiary feature that includes a broadcast channel as part of the inquiry procedure is not limited to Bluetooth devices, but other communication arrangements, in particular frequency hopping systems. Applicable to Auxiliary features are described in more detail in co-transferred and co-pending British Patent Application No. 0020099.8, entitled "Data Delivery Through Beacons."

1 is a simplified block diagram of a CA mobile phone 10 for use with a pair of interconnected low power short range base stations or beacons 12 and 14. As mentioned above and described in more detail below, such an arrangement may be used to provide location-specific information, such as a local map, information about nearby stores and restaurants, in a place such as a shopping mall, The beacon downloads the information key to the mobile device. An information key is a small data object that provides a reference to the source of all information, which is in the form of a number of predetermined fields, one of which is given to the user. May contain descriptive text short text. Another field may be some form of pointer, i.e. an address, for example a URL or a telephone number. Other supplementary fields can control how data is presented to the user and how the address can be used. Beacons generally broadcast a number of these keys cyclically, although waiting for the appropriate key can often be a time-consuming task, and each key is typically a different service or data item. Is related.

Problems with building and configuring beacons include beacon ranges that depend on output power (typical range is 1 dB to 100 dB), local interference level, and receiver sensitivity.

The CA terminal 10 of the user includes an antenna 16 connected to the transceiver stage 18 for receiving and transmitting messages. The outgoing message originates from a user input to the phone, ie audio input via microphone 20 and A / D converter 22 or other data input via keypad or other input means 24. These inputs are processed by the signal and data processing stage 26 into a message data format and converted by the encoder 28 into a transmission format before being fed to the transceiver stage 18.

Messages received via antenna 16 and transceiver 18 are transmitted to filtering and signal processing stage 32 via decoding stage 30. If the data carried in the message is for presentation on the phone's display screen 34, this data is optionally buffered 38 and then sent to the display driver 36, which formats the display image. . As can be appreciated, display 34 may be a relatively simple low resolution device, and converting received data into display data is a subset of the functionality of processing stage 32 without requiring a dedicated display driver stage. Can be run as.

If this message carries data coming from one of the beacons 14, the phone has the ability to filter the received information according to the 40 user preferences stored in advance. Only when the comparison of stored preference data and the subject matter indicator in the message indicates that a data item of particular interest has been received (ie, this information is only retained in the buffer 38 and / or Or screen 34}.

For conventional audio messages, audio data is output by the filter and processing stage 32 to the earphones or speakers 46 through the D / A converter 42 and the amplifier 44. Receipt of such a message from telephone network 48 is indicated by arrow 50: Telephone network 48 also links from telephone 10 to Wide-Area Network (WAN) server 52 and; It provides a link to one or more remote service providers 56 that provide a data source for phone 10 via WAN 54 (which may be the Internet).

The communication between the CA terminal {telephone 10} and the CA base station {beacons 12 and 14} takes two forms: 'push' and 'pull'. In the 'push' mode, the inquiry information is broadcast to all portable terminals 10 in the form of a short 'key', indicated by 60 by the beacon 12. As described in detail below, the telephone 10 transmits an identifier for itself to the first beacon 12 to respond to the inquiry key, where the first beacon 12 continues to broadcast the inquiry key to initiate the conversation. 2 beacon 14 to transmit.

The other type of key is received by the terminal 10 'involuntarily', i.e. without direct intervention by the user, and the comparator function is applied to the processing stage 32 automatically, in accordance with the user's preset preferences. Is filtered. Suitably, the processing stage is operable to apply the comparator function in concurrent or overlapping multiple copies so as to be able to process in parallel a relatively large number of keys that can be received. Some are discarded, some are kept for further study, others are immediately alerted by the user. By way of example, a store may choose to convey details of a special order to a passing terminal with the knowledge that the user who is interested and thus properly set up the filter 32 is alerted by his terminal.

Occasionally, a user may wish to obtain more information than is contained in a key. Here, the 'pull' mode allows the user to establish a connection with the server 56 (which does not necessarily have to be specifically configured for use of the CA), and actively requests information to go down to the terminal 10. Thus this mode is typically interactive.

As mentioned above, in the present case, one beacon 12 is named 'inquirer' beacon and continues to send a Bluetooth inquiry message. The other beacons (or each beacon) are called 'interactor' beacons and can communicate with the terminal 10 on a one-to-one basis upon request. Here, the lookup procedure is performed by the lookup beacon 12, and the paging procedure is performed by the talker beacon 14. By delegating functionality in this way, you can save a significant amount of time, otherwise you would have spent time trying to connect to the piconet.

2 is a simplified block diagram of a dual beacon system shown in accordance with the message transmission order (numbers in parentheses). There is one inquirer beacon 12 and one talker 14 in this basic system, but from the following it is easy to see how the system can be extended to a network of multiple beacons and talkers. will be. Inquiry beacon 12 continues to send inquiry packet 1, which is used to resolve the identity of any client-portable device-within the beacon. Once the client 15 is in range, the client responds to the query 2 and gives the query information about its identity.

The information about the discovered client is then transmitted via a secure channel (generally via a fixed infrastructure) to a beacon which is solely involved in transmitting the talker beacon 14 (3) -information to the client. This then initiates a service conversation 4 by sending a page message containing the identity of the responding client 15.

Although the client must go through the lookup and paging process, the fact that the lookup sends out lookup packets continuously makes the process much faster. The use of a separate beacon 14 for every conversation means that the viewer does not have to pause to send a page message, nor does it need to stop to enable interactive traffic. Thus, the client does not have to wait for the lookup to enter lookup mode. This in itself saves a considerable amount of time. As an added bonus, the Talker Beacon does not have to wait for the lookup cycle to complete before sending a page message, which can save seconds.

3 is a schematic diagram of a number of beacon networks in which the above idea can be extended to a larger network comprising several talkers (A, B, C) and often more than one queryer (I).

Multiple chatters may be associated with one query such that positioning content may be sent to the client. As in the case of a dual beacon system, the queryer sends the client's identity to all talkers in the network. This means that the client must always go through the lookup process once while it is in range of the network.

Once the talker knows the identity of the client, these talkers can then begin work to conduct a service chat. The talkers can solve all the clients in succession. When a client walks within the scope of one conversation, the client responds to the page by establishing a link with that conversation. The other talker will usually stop releasing the client until the link is released. More advanced paging structures can only be solved within adjacent cells, because the user has to walk through one or more cells before reaching a further distant cell. In the old way, large systems can be solved economically. Other paging strategies are possible.

An alternative approach is to have the terminal request to be in parked mode. In parking mode, the terminal is given a special status (such as a Bluetooth master) by the talker. The talker then quietly spends a lot of time and periodically wakes up to resynchronize with the master itself and listen to special beacon messages for possible commands, including page messages. If the user decides to conduct a conversation, the terminal wakes up and requests a link with the master. The conversation operation may then proceed as before.

In a wide area network configuration, the special parking mode identity of the terminal is known to all talker beacons in the system. This gives the terminal the ability to enter parking mode at one site and stay awake at another site without having to go through an inquiry process.

As mentioned, more than one inquirer beacon may be part of the system. A shopping mall may, for example, have one at each entrance of the building. Naturally, according to the distributed system, it does not matter in which inquiry beacon the client terminal completes the inquiry process.

By distributing the functionality of inquiry and conversation, significant time savings are achieved because there is no need to sign up into the piconet at each beacon. However, as this indicates, the client still needs to request talker beacon information, even broadcast information. It asks the client to send his identity before setting up how interesting or unavailable the information is and to reveal his identity when doing so. The mechanism for transmitting broadcast information via an inquiry packet is described in the previously pending co-pending application and is summarized below with reference to FIGS. 4-9, which structure is just discussed as having a significant advantage in distribution. It can be combined with a distributed fixed part architecture approach.

With multiple beacon networks, more query beacons-used to provide broadcast information at multiple locations-can supplement the distribution structure previously developed. A client who wants to know more about a particular piece of information sent by a queryer can contact any talker to form a chat link. As a possible bonus, the terminal does not have to follow the inquiry process when entering the shopping mall (or other area where the beacon is located) but may holdoff until the time the terminal finds an interesting broadcast message.

Some other functionality can take advantage of distributed fixed part networks. Of course, one of the most important is call handover or handoff. This function allows a terminal with link activity to deliver a link from one fixed cell to another, ideally for seamless mode (for voice mode). By distributing the management of the identity and link functions of the terminal on the fixed side, handover in many cell fixed networks in most areas is enabled in Bluetooth and similar protocols.

Beacons may be networked in whole or in part with at least some adjustments to their broadcast messages. 4 is a diagram of such a system 100 consisting of linked beacons implementing the present invention, for example providing an implementation of an infrastructure for use in department stores, shopping malls, theme parks, and the like. The system 100 includes a plurality of beacons 102, 104, 106, 108 distributed over a series of locales. Each beacon 102-108 broadcasts one or more short range inquiry signals in a timeslot format described in more detail below. Beacons 102-108 are controlled by Beacon Infrastructure server (BIS) 110, with one or more terminals 112, 114, 116, 118 connected to this server 110. . Terminals 112 to 118 are in the form of data added by a service provider, i.e., a user of beacons 102 to 108, piggybacked to the inquiry facilitation signal transmitted by beacons 102 to 108. Allows authoring or editing assigned service slots. The service provider may lease one beacon or one of the beacons' service slots from the infrastructure provider. For this reason, server 110 provides a simple HTML template for filling through one of the terminals 112-118 by the user. For example, after filling in a template with detailed descriptions of services and other information so that data can be run over beacon broadcasts, the template can be, for example, secure HTTP (S-HTTP) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). ) Is preferably returned to server 110 via a secure link. SSL forms a secure link between the client and server, through which any amount of data can be transmitted securely. S-HTTP is designed to securely send individual messages. The server 110 then forms an appropriate additional data packet to append to the inquiry signal of the related one of the beacons 102-108 based on the information submitted in the template. System 100 may further include an application server 120 to assist in executing various functions as will be readily understood by a skilled reader.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the strong candidate technology for the wireless link required for at least the 'push' mode of the CA system described above is Bluetooth, which is expected to be part of the components of the majority of mobile phones 10. Because. Problems can be seen when using the 'push' mode or analyzing the Bluetooth protocol for CA broadcast. In an ideal case, terminal 10 detects fixed beacon 12 and extracts basic information from the beacon without having to have terminal 10 transmit. However, this type of broadcast operation is not supported by the current Bluetooth specification.

In part, the incompatibility follows the frequency hopping characteristics of the Bluetooth beacon system, which indicates that the terminal must be synchronized with this beacon in both time and frequency in order for broadcast messages (or indeed any messages) to be received by the passing terminal. it means. The portable device 10 must synchronize its clock to the beacon clock and deduce from the beacons identity which of several hopping sequences is being used.

For this reasoning, conventionally, portable devices have been required to connect piconets-as slaves-managed by beacons as piconet masters. Analysis of the lookup procedure and page procedure indicates that the time taken to connect to a piconet and be in a position to receive information from the master can be tens of seconds, which is too very long for a CA application, where the user May move out of the beacon's range before the link selection is completed.

The difficulty of receiving broadcast data from the beacons is caused at least in part by the frequency hopping characteristics of Bluetooth and similar systems. The Bluetooth inquiry procedure has been specifically proposed to solve the problem of bringing together a master and a slave. Applicants have found that it is possible to transport a broadcast channel in a piggy-back manner in an inquiry message sent by the master. Recognized. Only the CA terminal needs to read the broadcast channel message and only the CA base station or beacon transmits the message. As a result, in the air interface, the mechanism is fully compatible with conventional (non-CA) Bluetooth systems.

To illustrate how this is implemented, consider first how the inquiry procedure works with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. When the Bluetooth unit wishes to discover another Bluetooth device, the Bluetooth unit enters a so-called inquiry substate. In this mode, the Bluetooth unit sends an inquiry message containing a General Inquiry Access Code (GIAC) or a plurality of Dedicated Inquiry Access Codes (DIAC). This message transmission is repeated at several levels. First, the message is transmitted on a total of 32 to 16 frequencies that make up the inquiry hopping order. This message is sent twice at two frequencies in an even timeslot, and then the odd timeslot is used to hear the reply at two corresponding inquiry response hopping frequencies. The sixteen frequencies and their response counterparts can thus be covered within sixteen timeslots, or 10 Hz. The chart of Fig. 5 shows the transmission order at 16 frequencies centered around f {k}, where f {k} represents the inquiry hopping order.

The next step is to repeat the transmission sequence at least N _query times. At a minimum, this should be set to N _lookups = 256 repetitions of the entire order of constructing a transmission train called inquiry transmission train A. Next, the inquiry transmission train A is swapped with the inquiry transmission train B constituting the transmission order with the remaining 16 frequencies. Again, train B consists of 256 iterations of the transmission order. The overall inquiry transmission cycles between the transmissions of train A and train B. As shown in FIG. 6, the specification states that this switch between trains must occur at least three times to ensure that the set of all responses is in an error-free environment. This means that the inquiry broadcast takes at least 10.24 seconds.

One way to reduce this is that the switch between inquiry transmission trains can be made more quickly, i.e., without waiting until the end of 2.56 seconds where 256 iterations of 10 ms cover 16 timeslots. This can be appropriately achieved by setting the system to switch if this inquiry message is not detected after 50 ms, for example, provided that the inquiry message is not detected in the rest of the existing train.

The portable device to be discovered by the beacon enters an inquiry scan substate. Here, the device hears a message containing the associated GIAC or DIAC. The device also operates in a periodic manner. The device listens at a single hop frequency during the lookup scan period, which should be long enough to cover the 16 lookup frequencies used for lookup. The interval between the starting points of the continuous scan should not be greater than 1.28 seconds. The selected frequency comes from the 32 lists that make up the inquiry hopping order.

Upon hearing an inquiry containing the appropriate IAC, the portable device enters the so called inquiry response substep and sends a number of inquiry response messages to the beacon. Beacon then unpacks the portable device and invites it to connect to the piconet.

As shown in FIG. 6 and described above, the Applicant has an extra field added to the inquiry message that allows the inquiry message sent by the base station to carry a user-defined payload (CA DATA). Suggest that. In the CA scenario, this payload is used to convey broadcast information, or key, to the CA terminal during the inquiry procedure. It will be appreciated that by adding this field to the end of the inquiry message, this message can be ignored without changing the non-CA receiver. In addition, by using CA specific DIAC, the CA receiver can be alerted for the presence of extra information fields.

The presence of an extra data field means that conventionally allowed guidance space at the end of the Bluetooth inquiry packet is reduced. However, this space—the one provided to give frequency synthesizer time to change to a new hop frequency—is not normally used because the current frequency synthesizer can switch at a speed that does not need to be extended to extra guidance space. . The standard inquiry packet is an ID packet that is 68 bits long. Since this packet is transmitted in a half-slot, the allocated guide space is (625 / 2-68) = 244.5 ms (625 ms slot duration, 1 M bits / sec signaling rate). Modern synthesizers can switch routines considered by those skilled in the art in much less time with a value of 100 ms or lower. Applicants will therefore readily appreciate that 100 bits are allocated as an appropriate size for this new field, but of course other field sizes are possible.

The CA handset does not require execution to connect to the piconet through a long procedure and can receive broadcast data quickly. Moreover, because the handset does not need to transmit any information, there is a particularly significant consequent power saving in dense environments where many CA base stations may exist. Nevertheless, when the handset is in interactive mode and wants to connect to the piconet for more information, the handset can use the default inquiry procedure as usual. There is no loss of functionality through supporting additional data fields.

In a typical embodiment, four of the 100 bits may be lost as a trailer bit for the ID field, which is the importance of the ID field read by the correlator. Of the remaining 96 bits, Applicant's preferred allocation is 64 to be used as data and 32 to be used as 2/3 forward error correction (FEC) checksums, but here, checksums, any headers included, And other overhead may greatly reduce the number of bits available for data, in some situations to about 10 bits or less. Thus, each inquiry burst contains 8 bytes of broadcast data. In most common scenarios, by a second group of A train and B train, the portable device has discovered a base station and understood that this base station is a CA beacon and is waiting for broadcast data. As the device is specifically listening, the portable device can read 256 burst data at least twice (A and B) and provide two lots of 2K bytes, ie 4K bytes total.

At this stage, the portable device does not know the phase of the beacon clock because this information is not transmitted. To assist the portable device, the clock information is transmitted to at least some trains in the first A and B groups, as shown in FIG. 8, with some auxiliary information indicating when the next switching between A and B occurs. This clock information is transmitted in place of CA broadcast data, so that means are provided to identify between two data channels. Using a separate DIAC is one possible way.

If the portable device knows the timing of the beacon, the portable device also knows how the timing of the beacon hops, which provides the ability to track all train transmissions. Since there are 16 transmissions in one frame, the final CA channel has 16 times as much capacity and can carry 64K bytes of information.

Since the terminal is awake every 1.28 seconds or less, the terminal generally obtains the clocking information required by the terminal by a half way mark in the first A period or the B period. As shown in FIG. 9, switching from clock to data in these half-marked marks provides a number of advantageous advantages. First, some data may be received in less than 5 seconds at the beginning of the inquiry procedure. Secondly, the terminal can still respond to the important key by automatically sending an inquiry response message to the base station (if that is the proper action the terminal will take), even if the key appears relatively late in the period. It should be noted that no increase in dose is seen.

In the foregoing, the portable device receives all additional data field packets on one of the 32 inquiry channels and thereby uses only 1/32 of the available bandwidth. As can be appreciated, if the uncertainty regarding when the portable terminal (beacon slave) receives the first inquiry packet can be overcome, the predetermined characteristic of the hopping order can be accommodated and thus the full bandwidth can be used. In order for the slave to synchronize with the master lookup hopping order from the point it received the first packet, the slave needs to know both the location and the master clock offset of the first received packet in the master hopping order. In the example below, it is assumed that the master follows a Bluetooth minimum lookup procedure comprising 256 iterations of a 16 channel lookup hopping sequence with 3 train switches (as in FIG. 6). Each sweep across 16 channels takes 10 ms.

An alternative method of synchronizing slave hopping is to transmit clocking data in every broadcast field. The additional data field BCD (FIG. 1) carries 4 bytes including the following information:

Master clock offset (2 bytes),

Number of previous train repetitions (1 byte)-Assuming that the previous train consists of 256 repetitions of 10 Hz trains, this parameter ranges from 0 to 255 (before the query switches to the next previous train). This indicates to the slave when the master next switches the entire train.

How many previous train switches have completed in the current lookup period (1 byte)-this data indicates to the slave what the master will do at the end of the current all train, i.e. if the master switches to another all train or the lookup procedure Indicates whether to terminate.

No field is needed to indicate the position of the current channel in the hopping sequence, as long as no channel is repeated in the 10 ms train, the slave can derive the position of the current channel from the recognition of the sequence.

From the foregoing, by adding 4 bytes to each additional field packet, the slave carries 4 additional bytes at the end of the inquiry while still having 4 bytes available (from 64 preferred quotas from 100 bits for data). It will be appreciated that field packets can be picked up.

Considering the completed beacon signal, it will be readily understood that the completed beacon signal needs to be divided into a number of four byte packets and one four byte packet is transmitted in each inquiry packet. Assuming that the length of the beacon signal is fixed for purposes of illustration, the entire signal at 16kB can be accommodated in a single lookup train (one train is 256 iterations of a 16 channel hopping sequence, 256 * 16 * 4 bytes = 16kB). Gives).

Extending this, by fixing that the first packet of the beacon signal goes to the first packet of the lookup train, from the message indicator field for the number of iterations for the current 16 channel hopping sequence of the message header, the slave receives in the completed beacon signal. It is possible to derive the location of one beacon packet.

After reading this disclosure, other changes may be made to those skilled in the art. Such modifications may be used in addition to, or in place of, other features already known for the design, manufacture, and use of fixed and portable communication systems and the systems and components included therein and those already described herein. May involve other features. As an example, instead of the above-described structure having four clocks and four data bytes in each broadcast packet, another arrangement may be used, i.e. with four clocks and four data bytes in every sixteenth packet. The arrangement of two clocks and six data bytes in 15 packets out of every 16 packets improves data transfer capacity without necessarily compromising synchronization performance.

The present invention is particularly used for services provided to users of electronic equipment, not limited to users of mobile communication devices such as portable telephones and suitably equipped PDAs (personal digital assistant terminals).

Claims (22)

First and second beacon devices capable of wireless message transmission and at least one portable device capable of receiving the message transmission, wherein the first beacon device is configured to send a series of inquiry messages in accordance with a first communication protocol. Arranged to broadcast, wherein the at least one portable device is arranged to detect the inquiry message and to respond with an identifier for the portable device, wherein the first beacon device transmits the received identifier to the second beacon device And the second beacon device and the portable device are configured to perform a service interaction when the second beacon device is triggered by receiving the portable device identifier. The communication system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of second beacon devices, each arranged to receive an identifier coming from the first beacon device. 2. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising a secure data channel for linking the first and second beacon devices and for transmitting a received identifier. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the second beacon device maintains and periodically updates an identifier list for the portable device on which the service conversation is being performed. 5. The communication system of claim 4, further comprising a timer, wherein the second beacon device is configured to remove the portable device identifier from the list if a conversation does not take place for a predetermined period of time. The communication system of claim 4, wherein the second beacon device is configured to remove a portable device identifier from the list if a duplicate copy of the identifier is received from the first beacon device. 5. The communication system of claim 4, wherein the second beacon device is configured to remove the portable device identifier from the list if the conversation includes receiving a predetermined message requesting removal from the portable device. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each inquiry message is in the form of a plurality of data fields arranged according to the first communication protocol, and wherein the first beacon device is further arranged to add an additional data field to each inquiry message prior to transmission. And the at least one portable device is arranged to receive a transmitted inquiry message and to read data coming from the additional data field. 9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the first beacon device is arranged to include an indication indicative of the presence of the additional data field in one of the predetermined data fields. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communication protocol comprises Bluetooth messaging, and wherein the first beacon device is configured to broadcast a series of inquiry messages on a predetermined clock continuous frequency, the clock information for the first beacon device. Is included in the data carried in the additional data field. 11. A mobile communication device for use in the system of any one of claims 1 to 10, comprising: a receiver capable of receiving a short range wireless inquiry message, and a data processing within the message and including an identifier for the device. Processing means operable to compose a response message and transmitting means configured to wirelessly transmit the created response message to a source of the inquiry message. A communication infrastructure comprising first and second beacon devices and interconnects therebetween for use in the communication system of claim 1, wherein the beacon device is capable of transmitting wireless messages to the at least one portable device. Wherein the first beacon device broadcasts a series of inquiry messages according to a first communication protocol, detects any response message that includes a portable device identifier for the portable device, and sends the received identifier to the second beacon. Operable to transmit to a beacon device, wherein the second beacon device is configured to receive a portable device identifier and perform a service conversation with the portable device when triggered. 13. The communications infrastructure of claim 12 wherein the connection between the first and second beacon devices comprises a secure data channel. 14. The communication infrastructure of claim 12 or 13, further comprising a plurality of second beacon devices. 15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising message management means operable to initiate and execute a handover of an ongoing message transmission session from one beacon device of the plurality of second beacons to another beacon device; Communication infrastructure. 16. The communications infrastructure of any one of claims 12-15, further comprising a plurality of said first beacon devices. A method of enabling a user of a portable communication device to conduct a service conversation with a beacon device in an environment comprising at least first and second beacon devices capable of wireless messages, wherein the first beacon device is a first communication. Broadcast a series of inquiry messages according to a protocol, wherein the user portable device detects the inquiry message and responds with an identifier for the portable device, the first beacon device transmits the received identifier to the second beacon device And the second beacon device and the portable device perform the service conversation when the second beacon device is triggered by receiving the portable device identifier. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second beacon device maintains and periodically updates a list of identifiers for the portable device on which the service conversation is being performed. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second beacon device removes the portable device identifier from the list if the conversation has not occurred for a predetermined period of time. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second beacon device removes a portable device identifier from the list if a duplicate copy of the identifier is received from the first beacon device. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second beacon device removes a portable device identifier from the list if the conversation includes receiving a predetermined message requesting removal from the portable device. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the inquiry messages are each in the form of a plurality of predetermined data fields arranged according to the first communication protocol, wherein the first beacon device carries broadcast message data in each inquiry message before transmission. Adding an additional data field, the portable device receiving a transmitted inquiry message and reading broadcast data coming from the additional data field.