TWI730760B - Electronic device and transmission scheduling method the same - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device and transmission scheduling method the same are provided. The transmission scheduling method is used in the electronic device including at least a first wireless communication module, a second wireless communication module and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is coupled to the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module, and the transmission scheduling method includes the following steps. When there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module and the first wireless communication is receiving, the microcontroller determines whether the supply current supplied by the electronic device to the second wireless communication module is greater than a default value. If yes, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module not to send the data until the first wireless communication module finishes receiving. If not, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module to send the data simultaneously while the first wireless communication module is receiving.

Description

Electronic device and its transmission scheduling method

The present invention relates to an electronic device and a transmission scheduling method thereof, and more particularly to an electronic device coexisting with multiple wireless communication modules (Wireless Communication Modules) and a transmission scheduling method thereof.

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), different wireless communication technologies (for example, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, ANT+, etc.) can be integrated in the same electronic device. However, in addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which have solutions to channel interference, for other different wireless communication technologies, their communications protocols (Communications Protocols) do not have a coexistence design, so that if one of the wireless communication modules (for example, hereinafter referred to as For TX) when transmitting at high output power, it will interfere with other receiving wireless communication modules in the same electronic device (for example, RX for short), and excessive power may damage the same electronic device for a long time. Other wireless communication modules.

Based on this interference problem caused by the coexistence of wireless communication modules, the existing transmission scheduling method adheres to the principle of "time division multiplexing" and makes the TX wait until the RX completes the reception before transmitting. That is to say, when the RX is receiving, according to the existing transmission scheduling method, the TX will always work at the maximum output power and the efficiency is not good. However, in some cases, TX has the opportunity to transmit at the same time as RX, and there is no need to avoid receiving RX. Therefore, how to design an electronic device and a transmission scheduling method that enables such wireless communication modules to coexist more efficiently has become an important issue in this field.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a transmission scheduling method used in an electronic device including at least a first wireless communication module, a second wireless communication module, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is coupled to the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module, and the transmission scheduling method includes the following steps. When there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module and the first wireless communication module is receiving the data, the microcontroller determines whether the power current supplied by the second wireless communication module by the electronic device is greater than the preset value. If yes, the second wireless communication module is controlled by the microcontroller not to send data until the first wireless communication module finishes receiving. If not, the second wireless communication module is controlled by the microcontroller to simultaneously send data while the first wireless communication module is receiving.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an electronic device, which includes at least a first wireless communication module, a second wireless communication module, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is coupled to the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module. When there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module and the first wireless communication module is receiving, the microcontroller determines whether the power current supplied by the electronic device to the second wireless communication module is greater than a preset value. If yes, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module not to send data until the first wireless communication module finishes receiving. If not, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module to simultaneously send data while the first wireless communication module is receiving.

In order to further understand the features and technical content of the present invention, please refer to the following detailed description and drawings about the present invention. However, the provided drawings are only for reference and description, and are not used to limit the present invention.

First, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a step flow chart of a transmission scheduling method provided by an embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2 can be used in the electronic device 1 of FIG. 1, but the present invention does not limit the electronic device 1 of FIG. 1 to only execute the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic device 1 at least includes a first wireless communication module 11, a second wireless communication module 12 and a microcontroller 13. In this embodiment, the first wireless communication module 11 and the second wireless communication module 12 will use different wireless communication technologies for transmission.

For example, the first wireless communication module 11 may be a ZigBee wireless communication module, and the second wireless communication module 12 may be a Wi-Fi wireless communication module, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In addition, the microcontroller 13 is coupled to the first wireless communication module 11 and the second wireless communication module 12, and is a microcomputer that integrates a central processing unit, memory, and various input and output interfaces on an integrated circuit. However, the present invention does not limit the specific implementation of the microcontroller 13. In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks in the prior art, the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2 must be limited to start execution when there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module 12 and the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving it. The present invention also does not limit the specific implementation manner in which data is waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module 12, and the specific implementation manner in which the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving.

As shown in FIG. 2, when there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module 12 and the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, the electronic device 1 executes step S210, and the microcontroller 13 determines the supply of the electronic device 1 Whether the power current Is of the second wireless communication module 12 is greater than a preset value. If yes, the electronic device 1 executes step S220 and controls the second wireless communication module 12 through the microcontroller 13 not to send data until the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving; if not, the electronic device 1 executes step S230, through the microcontroller 13 13 controls the second wireless communication module 12 to simultaneously send data while the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving. As for how the microcontroller 13 controls the second wireless communication module 12 not to send data until the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving, it will be explained in other paragraphs below, so the details will not be described again.

On the other hand, please refer to FIGS. 3A and 3B. FIGS. 3A and 3B are timing diagrams of the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2 performed by the electronic device 1 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, when there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module 12 and the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, the microcontroller 13 determines that the second wireless communication module provided by the electronic device 1 Whether the power supply current Is of the group 12 is greater than the preset value is step S210. Then, when it is determined that the power supply current Is is greater than the preset value, the microcontroller 13 controls the second wireless communication module 12 not to send data until the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving, or in other words, as shown in FIG. 3A, the microcontroller 13 The controller 13 makes the second wireless communication module 12 wait until the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving before transmitting. In practice, the microcontroller 13 can know that the first wireless communication module 11 has finished receiving by receiving the signal RX_END transmitted by the first wireless communication module 11, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In contrast, as shown in FIG. 3B, when it is determined that the power supply current Is is not greater than the preset value, the microcontroller 13 allows the second wireless communication module 12 to simultaneously transmit while the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving. It can be seen that, compared with the prior art, the present invention does not completely adhere to the principle of "time division multiplexing", but because the larger power supply current Is has a higher output power, the present invention supplies the second power through measurement. The power current Is of the wireless communication module 12 is used to identify the output power of the second wireless communication module 12, and according to the size of the power current Is, it is determined to let the second wireless communication module 12 wait until the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving The transmission is performed later, or the second wireless communication module 12 can transmit simultaneously with the first wireless communication module 11, namely, step S220 or step S230, so that the coexistence of such wireless communication modules is more efficient.

In practice, as shown in FIG. 1, the first wireless communication module 11 and the second wireless communication module 12 may respectively include at least a transceiver (Transceiver) and a front end module (Front End Module, FEM), and the front end module is more It may include at least a power amplifier (Power Amplifier, PA). However, since the operating principles of various wireless communication modules are already known to those skilled in the art, the details of the first wireless communication module 11 and the second wireless communication module 12 will not be repeated. . It should be noted that because the main functions of the front-end module and the power amplifier are gain and output power, and the power amplifier can not only be used as a part of the front-end module, it can also receive power independently, so the aforementioned power current Is is the value of the electronic device 1. The power supply 14 supplies current to the front-end module (or power amplifier) 122 of the second wireless communication module 12.

The electronic device 1 may further include at least a current sensor (Current Sensor) 15, which is coupled between the microcontroller 13, the power supply 14 and the front-end module (or power amplifier) 122 of the second wireless communication module 12 for use To measure the power current Is of the front-end module (or power amplifier) 122 of the second wireless communication module 12 supplied by the power supply 14. That is to say, in terms of hardware design, the present invention can add a current sensor 15 to the current path supplied to the front-end module (or power amplifier) 122 to measure the current power supply current Is as a judgment parameter. In this way, the present invention will not need to add any additional components on the radio frequency (RF) path, and will not increase the loss on the radio frequency path.

In addition, since the front-end module (or power amplifier) 122 is the main component of the second wireless communication module 12 for transmission, and its operation must rely on the power supply 14 to supply power, so in this embodiment, the microcontroller 13 It is further coupled to the power supply 14 and controls the power supply 14 to be turned off or turned on according to the comparison result of the power current Is and the preset value. It can be seen that when the comparison result indicates that the power supply current Is is greater than the preset value, the microcontroller 13 controls the power supply 14 to turn off to control the second wireless communication module 12 not to send data, and the first wireless communication module 11 After the reception is completed, the microcontroller 13 controls the power supply 14 to restart to control the second wireless communication module 12 to send data.

It is worth mentioning that although the microcontroller 13 controls the second wireless communication module 12 as TX in this embodiment, the electronic device 1 can also be used for the first wireless communication module 11 as RX, that is, receiving. At least a power supply 16 and a current sensor 17 are included. The power supply 16 is used to provide the power current Is2 to the front-end module (or power amplifier) 112 of the first wireless communication module 11. The current sensor 17 is coupled between the microcontroller 13, the power supply 16 and the front-end module (or power amplifier) 112 of the first wireless communication module 11, and is used to measure the first wireless communication supplied by the power supply 16 The power supply current Is2 of the front-end module (or power amplifier) 112 of the communication module 11.

As mentioned above, based on the power supply current Is corresponding to different output powers supplied to the front-end module (or power amplifier) 112, this embodiment can establish a power supply current Is and output power comparison chart, so that the microcontroller 13 is based on the current sensor 15 The measured power current Is, the output power of the second wireless communication module 12 is identified. Please note that although allowing the second wireless communication module 12 and the first wireless communication module 11 to transmit at the same time will sacrifice the performance of the first wireless communication module 11, this embodiment can also be obtained through empirical rules With the power supply current Is of the module (or power amplifier) 112, the second wireless communication module 12 will not interfere with or damage the first wireless communication module 11. Therefore, the aforementioned preset value may be the upper limit value of the power supply current Is not causing the second wireless communication module 12 to interfere with or damage the first wireless communication module 11.

In other words, once the power supply current Is is higher than the upper limit, for example 80mA, and if the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving at this time, the power supply 14 supplying power to the front-end module (or power amplifier) 112 will be Turn off, and turn on again after the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving. In contrast, in other embodiments, whether the power supply 14 is turned off or not can also be determined by the operating frequency of the first wireless communication module 11, but this modification or change does not depart from the technical concept of the present invention. In addition, in order to let the microcontroller 13 know whether the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, the present invention further provides an implementation manner.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transceiver 111 of the first wireless communication module 11 can output a reception enable signal RX_EN to the general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pin of the microcontroller 13, and the microcontroller 13 can use The level of the receiving enable signal RX_EN is read to determine whether the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving. For example, if the receive enable signal RX_EN output by the transceiver 111 is at a high logic level "1", it means that the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, and the receive enable signal RX_EN is at a low logic level "0", which means The first wireless communication module 11 is not receiving, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, it should be understood that the signal RX_END in FIG. 3A can be replaced by the receive enable signal RX_EN with a low logic level "0", but this does not affect the implementation of the present invention. In short, the transmission row of the present invention The programming method can be modified or changed based on different applications.

Please also refer to FIG. 4, which is a flowchart of the steps of a transmission scheduling method according to another embodiment of the present invention. Compared with the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2, the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 4 is not limited to start execution while the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving. As shown in FIG. 4, when there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module 12, the electronic device 1 first executes step S410, and determines the power current supplied by the electronic device 1 to the second wireless communication module 12 through the microcontroller 13 Whether Is is greater than the preset value, and regardless of whether the judgment result is yes or no, the electronic device 1 will then use the microcontroller 13 to determine whether the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving according to the level of the receiving enable signal RX_EN, that is, Perform step S420 or step S430. It should be noted that in other embodiments, the order of step 410 and the order of step 420 and step 430 can be interchanged. In other words, the first wireless communication module 11 may first determine whether it is receiving, and then determine whether the power current Is of the second wireless communication module 12 is greater than a preset value.

That is, when the power supply current Is is greater than the preset value and the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, the electronic device 1 executes step S440 to control the second wireless communication module 12 through the microcontroller 13 not to send data until The first wireless communication module 11 ends the reception. In contrast, when the power supply current Is is not greater than the preset value and the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, the electronic device 1 executes step S450 to control the second wireless communication module 12 to operate in the first wireless communication module through the microcontroller 13 The communication module 11 simultaneously sends data while receiving. In addition, when the power current Is is greater than the preset value and the first wireless communication module 11 is not receiving, or when the power current Is is not greater than the preset value and the first wireless communication module 11 is not receiving, the electronic device 1 will execute step S460 to control the second wireless communication module 12 to send data through the microcontroller 13.

It can be seen that in the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 4 executed by the electronic device 1 of FIG. 1, the microcontroller 13 controls the power supply according to the comparison result of the power supply current Is and the preset value and the level of the receiving enable signal RX_EN. The device 14 is turned off or turned on. For example, please refer to FIG. 5 altogether. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 4 showing the state of the power supply 14 being turned off or on in the form of a table. Please note that the embodiment of FIG. 5 also assumes that the receive enable signal RX_EN is at a high logic level "1", which means that the first wireless communication module 11 is receiving, and the receive enable signal RX_EN is at a low logic level "0", which means The first wireless communication module 11 is not receiving, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, when the power supply current Is exceeds the limit, that is, the power supply current Is is greater than the preset value, and the reception enable signal RX_EN is at a high logic level "1", the microcontroller 13 controls the power supply 14 to turn off , To control the second wireless communication module 12 not to send data, and after the first wireless communication module 11 finishes receiving, the microcontroller 13 controls the power supply 14 to turn on again to control the second wireless communication module 12 to send data. Since the details are as described in the previous content, I will not repeat them here.

In summary, the embodiments of the present invention provide an electronic device and a transmission scheduling method thereof. The electronic device and its transmission scheduling method are based on the size of the power supply current, decide to let the second wireless communication module wait until the first wireless communication module completes reception before transmitting, or allow the second wireless communication module to communicate with The first wireless communication module transmits at the same time, which makes the coexistence of such wireless communication modules more efficient. In addition, in terms of hardware design, the electronic device measures the current power supply by adding a current sensor to the current path for the front-end module (or power amplifier) of the second wireless communication module. The current is used as a parameter for judgment. In this way, the electronic device will not need to add any additional components on the radio frequency path, and will not increase the loss on the radio frequency path.

The content provided above is only the preferred and feasible embodiments of the present invention, and does not limit the scope of the patent application of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent technical changes made by using the description and schematic content of the present invention are included in the application of the present invention. Within the scope of the patent.

1: Electronic device 11: The first wireless communication module 12: The second wireless communication module 13: Microcontroller 14,16: power supply 15,17: Current sensor 111, 121: Transceiver 112, 122: Front-end module (or power amplifier) Is, Is2: power supply current RX_END: signal RX_EN: Receive enable signal S210~S230, S410~S460: process steps

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of the steps of a transmission scheduling method provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

3A and 3B are time sequence diagrams of the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 2 performed by the electronic device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the steps of a transmission scheduling method provided by another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the transmission scheduling method of FIG. 4 showing a power supply off or on state in the form of a table.

S210~S230: Process steps

Claims (12)

A transmission scheduling method used in an electronic device including at least a first wireless communication module, a second wireless communication module, and a microcontroller, the microcontroller being coupled to the first wireless communication module and the The second wireless communication module, and the transmission scheduling method includes: When there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module and the first wireless communication module is receiving, it is determined by the microcontroller whether a power supply current supplied by the electronic device to the second wireless communication module is greater than A preset value; If yes, control the second wireless communication module through the microcontroller not to send the data until the first wireless communication module finishes receiving; and If not, control the second wireless communication module through the microcontroller to simultaneously send the data while the first wireless communication module is receiving. The transmission scheduling method according to claim 1, wherein the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module respectively include at least a transceiver and a front-end module, and the front-end module further includes at least a power amplifier And the power current is the current supplied by a power supply of the electronic device to the front-end module or the power amplifier of the second wireless communication module. The transmission scheduling method described in claim 2 further includes: Measure the current supplied to the front-end module or the power amplifier of the second wireless communication module by the power supply through a current sensor, wherein the current sensor is coupled to the microcontroller and the power supply Between the supplier and the front-end module or the power amplifier of the second wireless communication module. The transmission scheduling method described in claim 3 further includes: According to a comparison result of the power supply current and the preset value, the power supply is controlled to be turned off or turned on through the microcontroller. The transmission scheduling method according to claim 4, wherein when the comparison result indicates that the power supply current is greater than the preset value, the microcontroller is used to control the power supply to be turned off to control the second wireless communication module not to Send the data, and after the first wireless communication module finishes receiving, control the power supply to turn on again through the microcontroller to control the second wireless communication module to send the data. The transmission scheduling method according to claim 1, wherein the preset value is an upper limit value at which the power supply current does not cause the second wireless communication module to interfere with or damage the first wireless communication module. An electronic device including at least: A first wireless communication module; A second wireless communication module; and A microcontroller coupled to the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module, wherein when there is data waiting to be sent by the second wireless communication module and the first wireless communication module is receiving, The microcontroller determines whether a power current supplied by the electronic device to the second wireless communication module is greater than a preset value; If yes, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module not to send the data until the first wireless communication module finishes receiving; and If not, the microcontroller controls the second wireless communication module to simultaneously send the data while the first wireless communication module is receiving. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the first wireless communication module and the second wireless communication module respectively include at least a transceiver and a front-end module, and the front-end module further includes at least a power amplifier, and The power supply current is the current supplied by a power supply of the electronic device to the front-end module or the power amplifier of the second wireless communication module. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the electronic device further includes at least: A current sensor coupled between the microcontroller, the power supply, and the front-end module of the second wireless communication module or the power amplifier, the current sensor is used to measure the power supply The current supplied to the front-end module or the power amplifier of the second wireless communication module. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the microcontroller is further coupled to the power supply, and controls the power supply to be turned off or on according to a comparison result of the power supply current and the preset value. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein when the comparison result indicates that the power supply current is greater than the preset value, the microcontroller controls the power supply to turn off, so as to control the second wireless communication module not to send the data And after the first wireless communication module finishes receiving, the microcontroller controls the power supply to turn on again to control the second wireless communication module to send the data. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the preset value is an upper limit value at which the power supply current does not cause the second wireless communication module to interfere with or damage the first wireless communication module.

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