CN112615649A

CN112615649A - Multi-member Bluetooth device, and related main Bluetooth circuit and auxiliary Bluetooth circuit

Info

Publication number: CN112615649A
Application number: CN202010783866.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈奕铮; 黄冠中; 洪佳君; 林后唯
Original assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Current assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Priority date: 2019-10-03
Filing date: 2020-08-06
Publication date: 2021-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-06
Also published as: CN112616136A; CN112616137B; TWI736378B; TW202116048A; TW202116085A; TWI763581B; TWI783255B; TW202116086A; TW202226805A; TWI757831B; TWI758225B; TWI774637B; TW202116083A; TWI739550B; TW202116082A; CN112615649B; CN112702724B; CN112702724A; CN112616137A; CN112702723B

Abstract

The present application relates to multi-member bluetooth devices, and related primary and secondary bluetooth circuits. The present invention provides a multi-member bluetooth device for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device, comprising: a main Bluetooth circuit and a sub Bluetooth circuit. During the operation of the secondary Bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the primary Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device and transfers the received packets to the secondary Bluetooth circuit, and the secondary Bluetooth circuit does not sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, but switches the secondary Bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode under the condition that a received signal quality index of the secondary Bluetooth circuit is superior to a preset index value. During the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the main Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device.

Description

Multi-member Bluetooth device, and related main Bluetooth circuit and auxiliary Bluetooth circuit

Technical Field

The present invention relates to bluetooth technologies, and more particularly, to a multi-member bluetooth device capable of dynamically switching operation modes, and a main bluetooth circuit and a sub-bluetooth circuit thereof.

Background

A multi-member bluetooth device refers to a bluetooth device composed of a plurality of bluetooth circuits used in cooperation with each other, for example, paired bluetooth headsets, grouped bluetooth speakers, and the like. When the multi-member bluetooth device is connected to another bluetooth device (hereinafter referred to as a remote bluetooth device), the remote bluetooth device treats the multi-member bluetooth device as a single bluetooth device. When the traditional multi-member Bluetooth device is operated, one member circuit is set as a main Bluetooth circuit and is responsible for bidirectional data transmission with a remote Bluetooth device, and other member circuits are set as auxiliary Bluetooth circuits.

However, the wireless signal environment of bluetooth communication changes over time or is influenced by the posture and usage habits of the user. If the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the sub-bluetooth circuit cannot be dynamically adjusted according to the situation of the current bluetooth communication environment, the overall operation efficiency of the multi-member bluetooth device is easily reduced, or the standby time is easily reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The present specification provides an embodiment of a multi-member bluetooth device for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device, comprising: a master bluetooth circuit, comprising: a first bluetooth communication circuit; a first packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit; and a first control circuit coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit and the first packet parsing circuit; and a secondary bluetooth circuit configured to selectively operate in a sniff mode or a relay mode, the secondary bluetooth circuit comprising: a second bluetooth communication circuit; a second packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit; and a second control circuit coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit and the second packet parsing circuit; during the operation of the secondary Bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device through the first Bluetooth communication circuit and transmits the received packets to the secondary Bluetooth circuit through the first Bluetooth communication circuit, the second control circuit receives the packets transmitted by the first Bluetooth communication circuit through the second Bluetooth communication circuit, and the second control circuit does not sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device through the second Bluetooth communication circuit; the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniff mode under the condition that a received signal quality index of the second Bluetooth communication circuit is better than a preset index value; and during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by using the first Bluetooth communication circuit, and the second control circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by using the second Bluetooth communication circuit.

The present specification further provides an embodiment of a master bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device. The multi-member bluetooth device is used for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device, and comprises a main bluetooth circuit and a sub bluetooth circuit which can be selectively operated in a sniffing mode or a relay mode, wherein the main bluetooth circuit comprises: a first bluetooth communication circuit; a first packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit; and a first control circuit coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit and the first packet parsing circuit; during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device through the first Bluetooth communication circuit and transmits the received packets to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit through the first Bluetooth communication circuit, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit receives the packets transmitted by the first Bluetooth communication circuit but cannot sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device; under the condition that a received signal quality index of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is better than a preset index value, the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniffing mode; and during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by using the first Bluetooth communication circuit, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device.

The present specification further provides an embodiment of a secondary bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device. The multi-member Bluetooth device is used for data transmission with a remote Bluetooth device and comprises a main Bluetooth circuit and an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit, wherein the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit comprises: a second bluetooth communication circuit; a second packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit; and a second control circuit, coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit and the second packet parsing circuit, configured to control the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit in a sniff mode and a relay mode; during the operation of the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the main Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device and transmits the received packets to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit, the second control circuit receives the packets transmitted by the main Bluetooth circuit by using the second Bluetooth communication circuit, but the second control circuit does not use the second Bluetooth communication circuit to sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device; the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniff mode under the condition that a received signal quality index of the second Bluetooth communication circuit is better than a preset index value; and during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the main Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, and the second control circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by utilizing the second Bluetooth communication circuit.

One advantage of the above embodiment is that the multi-member bluetooth device dynamically adjusts the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit according to the received signal quality indicator of the secondary bluetooth circuit to adapt to the situation of the current bluetooth communication environment.

Another advantage of the above embodiment is that it can prevent the sub bluetooth circuit or the main bluetooth circuit from operating in an undesired manner, thereby improving the overall operation performance of the multi-member bluetooth device and/or prolonging the standby time.

Another advantage of the above embodiment is that the service life of the primary bluetooth circuit or the secondary bluetooth circuit can be extended and/or the comfort of use of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit can be improved.

Other advantages of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following description and drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram of a multi-member bluetooth device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 to fig. 3 are simplified flowcharts of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a simplified partial flowchart of a second embodiment of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a simplified partial flowchart of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a simplified partial flowchart of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 to 8 are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9-10 are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or similar components or process flows.

Fig. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram of a multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The multi-member bluetooth device 100 is used for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device 102 and includes a plurality of member circuits (member circuits). For convenience of explanation, only three member circuits, a first bluetooth circuit 110, a second bluetooth circuit 120, and a third bluetooth circuit 130, are shown in the embodiment of fig. 1.

In the embodiment, all the member circuits in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 have similar main circuit structures, but different additional circuit components may be disposed in different member circuits, without limitation, the circuit structures of all the member circuits are all the same. For example, as shown in fig. 1, the first bluetooth circuit 110 includes a first bluetooth communication circuit 111, a first packet parsing circuit 113, a first clock synchronization circuit 115, and a first control circuit 117. Similarly, the second bluetooth circuit 120 includes a second bluetooth communication circuit 121, a second packet parsing circuit 123, a second clock synchronization circuit 125, and a second control circuit 127. The main circuit components inside the third bluetooth circuit 130 are similar to the first bluetooth circuit 110 or the second bluetooth circuit 120.

In the first bluetooth circuit 110, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 can be used for data communication with other bluetooth devices. The first packet parsing circuit 113 may be configured to parse the bluetooth packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. The first clock synchronization circuit 115 is coupled to the first packet parsing circuit 113, and is configured to adjust a clock signal used by the first bluetooth circuit 110 to synchronize a piconet clock (piconet clock) used between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and other bluetooth devices.

The first control circuit 117 is coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, the first packet parsing circuit 113, and the first clock synchronization circuit 115, and configured to control operation modes of the aforementioned circuits. In operation, the first control circuit 117 is capable of communicating data directly with the remote bluetooth device 102 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 via bluetooth wireless transmission, and communicating data with other member circuits via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. The first control circuit 117 also uses the first packet parsing circuit 113 to parse the packet received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to obtain the related data or command.

In the second bluetooth circuit 120, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 can be used for data communication with other bluetooth devices. The second packet parsing circuit 123 may be configured to parse the bluetooth packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The second clock synchronization circuit 125 is coupled to the second packet parsing circuit 123, and is configured to adjust a clock signal used by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to synchronize a piconet clock used between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and other bluetooth devices.

The second control circuit 127 is coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, the second packet parsing circuit 123, and the second clock synchronization circuit 125, and configured to control the operation of the aforementioned circuits. In operation, the second control circuit 127 can communicate data with other bluetooth devices via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 via bluetooth wireless transmission, and with other member circuits via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The second control circuit 127 also uses the second packet parsing circuit 123 to parse the packet received by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to obtain the related data or command.

In practice, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 can be implemented by suitable wireless communication circuits capable of supporting various versions of bluetooth communication protocols. The first packet parsing Circuit 113 and the second packet parsing Circuit 123 can be implemented by various packet demodulation circuits, digital operation circuits, microprocessors, or Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).

In some embodiments, the first clock synchronization circuit 115 or the second clock synchronization circuit 125 may be integrated into the first control circuit 117 or the second control circuit 127, or the first packet parsing circuit 113 and the second packet parsing circuit 123 may be integrated into the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, respectively.

In other words, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the first packet parsing circuit 113 may be implemented by different circuits, or may be implemented by the same circuit. The second bluetooth communication circuit 121 and the second packet parsing circuit 123 are also the same.

In application, different functional blocks in the first bluetooth circuit 110 may be integrated into a single circuit chip. For example, all functional blocks in the first Bluetooth circuit 110 or the second Bluetooth circuit 120 may be integrated into a single Bluetooth control chip (Bluetooth controller IC).

The different member circuits in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can perform data communication with each other through their respective bluetooth communication circuits to form various forms of data networks or data links. When the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 communicates with the remote Bluetooth device 102, the remote Bluetooth device 102 regards the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 as a single Bluetooth device, and the member circuits of the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 select one of the member circuits to play the role of a main Bluetooth circuit (main Bluetooth circuit) for processing the main task of receiving the packets sent by the remote Bluetooth device 102, while the other member circuits play the role of an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (auxiliary Bluetooth circuit).

The primary bluetooth circuit may receive packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 using various known mechanisms, and the secondary bluetooth circuit may obtain packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 using an appropriate mechanism during operation of the primary bluetooth circuit. For example, during the process of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the secondary bluetooth circuit may operate in a sniff mode (sniff mode) to actively sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. Alternatively, the secondary bluetooth circuit may operate in a relay mode (relay mode) to passively receive only packets forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit after receiving packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and not actively sniff packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. The respective operation of the primary bluetooth circuit and the secondary bluetooth circuit in the above two situations will be described in detail in the following paragraphs.

It should be noted that the terms "primary bluetooth circuit" and "secondary bluetooth circuit" are used throughout the specification and the claims only for the convenience of distinguishing the way in which different member circuits receive packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and do not indicate whether the primary bluetooth circuit has some degree of control authority over the other operating sides of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In addition, the roles of the master bluetooth circuit and the slave bluetooth circuit may also be dynamically exchanged during the operation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100. For example, the primary bluetooth circuit may intermittently evaluate its operational parameters, such as its computational load, remaining power, temperature, packet loss rate, and/or operating environment, and hand over the role of the primary bluetooth circuit to other secondary bluetooth circuits if the aforementioned operational parameters satisfy certain predetermined conditions.

For another example, the master bluetooth circuit may intermittently compare the difference between the operating parameter of the master bluetooth circuit and the operating parameters of the other slave bluetooth circuits, and hand over the role of the master bluetooth circuit to the other slave bluetooth circuits when the difference between the operating parameter of the master bluetooth circuit and the operating parameter of the slave bluetooth circuits exceeds a predetermined level.

In practice, the master bluetooth circuit may also take into account the above evaluation conditions to determine whether to hand over the role of the master bluetooth circuit to other slave bluetooth circuits.

Or, the auxiliary bluetooth circuit can also adopt various modes to judge whether the main bluetooth circuit is disabled or missing, and when the main bluetooth circuit is determined to be disabled or missing, the auxiliary bluetooth circuit replaces the old main bluetooth circuit, and actively and continuously plays the role of the main bluetooth circuit.

As is well known, during data communication between the multi-member bluetooth device 100 and the remote bluetooth device 102, the wireless signal environment of bluetooth communication may change over time due to various factors, and may also change due to the influence of the user's posture, usage habits, and the like. Under the condition that the roles of the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit are not exchanged, if the collocation operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit cannot be dynamically adjusted according to the condition of the current bluetooth communication environment, the overall operation efficiency of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is easily reduced, and the standby time of the main bluetooth circuit or the auxiliary bluetooth circuit can also be reduced. In some cases, the heat generation and temperature of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit may be increased, so as to shorten the service life of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit, or reduce the comfort of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit (which may cause discomfort to the user due to too high heat generation or temperature).

The operation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 will be further described with reference to fig. 2 to 3. Fig. 2 to 3 are simplified flowcharts illustrating an operation method of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the flowcharts of fig. 2 to 3, the flow in the field to which a specific device belongs represents the flow performed by the specific device. For example, the portion marked in the "master bluetooth circuit" field is the flow performed by the member circuit acting as the master bluetooth circuit; the portion marked in the "secondary bluetooth circuitry" field is the flow performed by the member circuitry acting as the secondary bluetooth circuitry, and the logic described above is also applicable to other subsequent flow diagrams.

As shown in fig. 2, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 first performs a process 202 to obtain bluetooth connection parameters required for receiving packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In practice, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may first use any one member circuit to connect with the remote bluetooth device 102 to obtain the bluetooth connection parameters, and then use the member circuit to transmit the obtained bluetooth connection parameters to other member circuits.

For example, in one embodiment, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may control the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to establish a bluetooth connection with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the process 202, and transmit the bluetooth connection parameter between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to other member circuits such as the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, so that the other member circuits can subsequently receive the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the bluetooth connection parameter.

For another example, in another embodiment, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may control the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to establish a bluetooth connection with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the process 202, and transmit the bluetooth connection parameter between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to other member circuits through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, so that the other member circuits can subsequently receive the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the bluetooth connection parameter. On the other hand, the second control circuit 127 may further transmit the device identification data of the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the bluetooth connection parameter between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 in the process 202, so that the first bluetooth circuit 110 can perform bidirectional packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the subsequent process. Then, the second bluetooth circuit 120 is changed to receive the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 in one direction, and does not transmit the packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, so as to avoid the problem of packet collision of the remote bluetooth device 102.

For convenience of description, it is assumed that the member circuit currently selected to process the primary task of receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) play the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In the process 204, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may notify other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and then the first bluetooth circuit 110 will play the role of the master bluetooth circuit and instruct the other member circuits to play the role of the slave bluetooth circuit and operate in the sniff mode. That is, the first bluetooth circuit 110 is responsible for processing the primary task of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and other member circuits only sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, but do not allow the transmission of commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102.

Then, during the sub-bluetooth circuit operating in the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 206, and the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, but does not forward the packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 to other sub-bluetooth circuits.

Each time the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may transmit a corresponding acknowledgement message (acknowledgement message) to the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. If the remote Bluetooth device 102 does not receive the corresponding acknowledgement for the particular packet, it retransmits the particular packet to the first Bluetooth communication circuit 111. In practice, various suitable packet handshake (handshake) mechanisms may be employed between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to reduce or avoid missing packets.

While the master bluetooth circuit receives the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the other member circuits playing the role of the slave bluetooth circuit proceed to the process 208, for example, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may sniff the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 according to the bluetooth connection parameters obtained in the process 202. In one embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 may sniff all bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In another embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 only sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110, but not sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to devices other than the multi-member bluetooth device 100. As can be seen from the above description of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 for sniffing the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 may be acquired by the second bluetooth circuit 120 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the first bluetooth circuit 110).

The secondary bluetooth circuit may perform the process 210 after each sniffing of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the second control circuit 127 transmits a corresponding notification message to the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, but the second control circuit 127 does not transmit any confirmation message to the remote bluetooth device 102 via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

In practice, the secondary bluetooth circuit may be modified to perform the aforementioned process 210 when the primary bluetooth circuit queries whether the secondary bluetooth circuit sniffs a specific packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

In other words, only the master bluetooth circuit will transmit the acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102 when receiving the packet, and the remote bluetooth device 102 does not know that the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and no packet handshaking procedure is performed between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102.

In this embodiment, the purpose of the second bluetooth circuit 120 transmitting the notification message to the first bluetooth circuit 110 is not to perform a packet handshake procedure with the first bluetooth circuit 110, but to allow the first bluetooth circuit 110 to know whether any packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120.

In addition, the purpose of the second bluetooth circuit 120 transmitting the notification message to the first bluetooth circuit 110 is not to allow the first bluetooth circuit 110 to determine whether to transmit the acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102. The first control circuit 117 of the present embodiment does not check whether the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives the notification message from the second bluetooth circuit 120 before transmitting the confirmation message to the remote bluetooth device 102. Therefore, the timing for the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to transmit the acknowledgement to the remote bluetooth device 102 is independent of whether the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives the notification from the second bluetooth circuit 120.

In practice, the aforementioned notification information transmitted by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the first bluetooth circuit 110 may be implemented by using various suitable data formats. For example, when the second bluetooth circuit 120 receives a specific bluetooth packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, the second control circuit 127 may extract a corresponding packet sequence number from the specific bluetooth packet, and combine or encode the packet sequence number with a device code or device identification data for identifying the second bluetooth circuit 120 into notification information corresponding to the specific bluetooth packet. For another example, the second control circuit 127 may extract the appropriate packet identification data from the particular bluetooth packet and combine or encode the packet identification data with the device code or device identification data for identifying the second bluetooth circuit 120 into the notification information corresponding to the particular bluetooth packet.

As can be seen from the above description, in the process of sequentially sending a plurality of bluetooth packets by the remote bluetooth device 102, each of the sub-bluetooth circuits repeats the aforementioned process 208 and process 210 under normal conditions, and further transmits a plurality of notification messages to the first bluetooth circuit 110. For example, the second bluetooth circuit 120 repeats the process 208 and the process 210 to transmit the notification messages corresponding to the bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110.

In actual operation, each sub-bluetooth circuit may occasionally receive some packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and the number of packets received by different sub-bluetooth circuits may be different. Therefore, the master bluetooth circuit may intermittently or periodically perform the process 212 to determine whether the respective slave bluetooth circuit fails to receive the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 according to the plurality of notification messages sent by the respective slave bluetooth circuit. For example, the first control circuit 117 may check whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses receiving a part of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 according to a plurality of notification messages sent by the second bluetooth circuit 120. The first packet parsing circuit 113 can parse a plurality of packet sequence numbers or a plurality of packet identification data from a plurality of notification messages sent from the second bluetooth circuit 120. The first control circuit 117 may check whether the packet sequence numbers or the packet identification data have continuity to check whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses a part of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. If the aforementioned packet sequence number or packet identification data is not continuous, the first control circuit 117 may determine that the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet corresponding to the missing packet sequence number or packet identification data. The first control circuit 117 may further define which packets the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses according to the missing packet sequence number or the missing packet identification data.

As mentioned above, the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 employ a packet handshake mechanism, so the first bluetooth circuit 110 should be able to obtain all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. If the first control circuit 117 checks that a certain bluetooth circuit misses a part of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, it proceeds to a process 214, and transmits the missing packets of the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 216 to receive the packet transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In other words, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the sniff mode, the second control circuit 127 can utilize the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to receive the packets transmitted from the first bluetooth circuit 110, so as to obtain the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 but missed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

By repeating the above operations, the second bluetooth circuit 120 can complete the missed packets with the help of the first bluetooth circuit 110. Similarly, the first bluetooth circuit 110 can assist other sub-bluetooth circuits to fill up the missing packets in the manner described above.

During the sniff mode of operation of the secondary bluetooth circuitry, if the secondary bluetooth circuitry needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, the commands must be forwarded to the remote bluetooth device 102 via the primary bluetooth circuitry. For example, if the second bluetooth circuit 120 needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, the commands, data, or related packets must be transmitted to the first bluetooth circuit 110 acting as the master bluetooth circuit through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, and then transmitted to the remote bluetooth device 102 by the first bluetooth circuit 110, so as to avoid the problem of packet collision occurring in the remote bluetooth device 102.

In other words, during the sniff mode of operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit, all member circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 receive packets from the remote bluetooth device 102, but only allow the primary bluetooth circuit to transmit commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102. Because the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 will use the packet handshake mechanism to avoid the occurrence of missing packets, and the timing for the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to transmit the acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102 is independent of whether the first bluetooth circuit 110 has received the notification message from the second bluetooth circuit 120. Therefore, when receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the other sub-bluetooth circuits transmit corresponding notification information to the first bluetooth circuit 110, which does not interfere with or delay the packet handshaking procedure between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102, and does not cause additional operation burden on the first bluetooth circuit 110 for performing the packet handshaking procedure.

Since other sub-bluetooth circuits in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 will sniff the packets sent from the remote bluetooth device 102, each sub-bluetooth circuit will normally receive most of the packets sent from the remote bluetooth device 102. Therefore, the first bluetooth circuit 110 as the master bluetooth circuit only needs to transmit the packets missed by the respective slave bluetooth circuits to the corresponding slave bluetooth circuits, and does not need to transmit all the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to each slave bluetooth circuit. Therefore, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 interacts with the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the method of fig. 2, so that the packet forwarding burden of the main bluetooth circuit can be greatly reduced, and the power consumption of the main bluetooth circuit can be further reduced. Therefore, the working time and the standby time of the main Bluetooth circuit can be effectively prolonged, the requirement of data transmission bandwidth between the main Bluetooth circuit and other member circuits can be greatly reduced, the hardware design of the main Bluetooth circuit and other member circuits can be simplified, and/or the circuit complexity and the circuit cost can be reduced.

During operation, various suitable existing data synchronization mechanisms can be adopted between the main bluetooth circuit and the other auxiliary bluetooth circuits to ensure that different member circuits can synchronously play audio data or video data transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, thereby avoiding the situation that the playing time sequences of different member circuits are inconsistent.

As is apparent from the above description, while the roles of the main bluetooth circuit and the sub bluetooth circuit are not changed while the sub bluetooth circuit is operating in the sniff mode, the wireless signal environment of bluetooth communication may change over time due to various factors, and may also change due to the influence of the user's posture, usage habits, and the like. If the matching operation between the master bluetooth circuit and the slave bluetooth circuit cannot be dynamically adjusted according to the current bluetooth communication environment, the overall operation performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is easily reduced, and the standby time of the master bluetooth circuit or the slave bluetooth circuit may also be reduced. In some cases, it is also possible to shorten the service life of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit, or to reduce the comfort level of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit.

In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the secondary bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs a process 302 during the sniff mode to calculate the data throughput (throughput) of the sniffed packet. For example, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may calculate the data amount of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 sniffed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to generate a corresponding data throughput in the process 302.

Next, the second control circuit 127 can proceed to process 304 to compare the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 with a predetermined threshold. If the throughput of the data sniffed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is higher than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is within the normal range and the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 for bluetooth communication is ideal. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may continue to operate in the sniff mode and repeat the operations of the aforementioned processes 208 to 304. On the contrary, if the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is lower than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the wireless signal environment for bluetooth communication performed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 at the time is not ideal, or the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or even in a sleep mode. In this case, the second bluetooth circuitry 120 may proceed to flow 306.

In the process 306, the second control circuit 127 generates a first mode switching request and transmits the first mode switching request to the master bluetooth circuit through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The aforementioned first mode switch request is for requesting the master bluetooth circuit to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and may be implemented in various suitable data formats.

In the process 308, the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives a first mode switching request from the second bluetooth circuit 120 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 310, after receiving the first mode switching request, the first control circuit 117 may determine whether to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode according to a predetermined rule, and perform a corresponding subsequent processing procedure according to the determination result. If the first control circuit 117 determines that the second bluetooth circuit 120 is not allowed to switch the operation mode, the process proceeds to block 312. Otherwise, if the first control circuit 117 determines to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, the process proceeds to step 316.

Since the first bluetooth circuit 110 allows the secondary bluetooth circuit to switch the operation mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 can switch from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and then the first bluetooth circuit 110 needs to forward the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120. As a result, the computation load, power consumption, heat generation, and data bandwidth requirement between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 are increased.

Therefore, the first control circuit 117 may evaluate the current operation load, the remaining power, the temperature, and/or the available data bandwidth of the first bluetooth circuit 110 after receiving the aforementioned first mode switching request, and allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode if the evaluation result meets the predetermined condition. For example, the first control circuit 117 may allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode only when the current operational load of the main bluetooth circuit is lower than a predetermined level, the remaining power is higher than a predetermined threshold, the temperature is lower than a predetermined temperature, and/or the available data bandwidth exceeds a predetermined value.

In the process 312, the first control circuit 117 generates a rejection message indicating that the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, and transmits the rejection message to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. In the process 314, the second bluetooth circuit 120 receives the rejection message from the first bluetooth circuit 110 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In this case, the second control circuit 127 controls the second bluetooth circuit 120 to continue operating in the sniff mode according to the indication of the rejection message, and repeats the operations of the aforementioned processes 208 to 304. In the process 316, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 generates a first mode switch indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and transmits the first mode switch indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. In the process 318, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 receives the first mode switching indication from the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the second control circuit 127 switches the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120 from the sniff mode to the relay mode according to the first mode switching indication. Then, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 320, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 322.

In the process 320, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and forwards the received packet to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 322, the second control circuit 127 controls the second bluetooth circuit 120 to operate in the relay mode, and receives the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. However, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second control circuit 127 does not use the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In other words, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 indirectly obtains the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth circuit 110.

Please note that, the aforementioned operation manner of the first control circuit 117 performing the determination procedure of the process 310 first and performing the process 316 after determining that the first bluetooth circuit 110 meets the predetermined condition is only an embodiment and is not limited to the practical implementation of the present invention. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may skip the determination procedure of the flow 310 and directly proceed to the flow 316 after receiving the first mode switching request.

As can be seen from the above description, the second bluetooth circuit 120, which plays the role of the slave bluetooth circuit, intermittently compares the data throughput sniffed by itself with the predetermined threshold during the sniff mode to evaluate whether the bluetooth wireless signal environment of itself is degraded or whether the packet amount sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is significantly reduced. As long as the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs data throughput higher than the predetermined threshold (i.e., the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is within the normal range and the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 is still ideal), the first bluetooth circuit 110, which is in the role of the master bluetooth circuit, does not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the relay mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets that are missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

The first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the sniff mode to the relay mode only when the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 is lower than the predetermined threshold, i.e., the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 becomes undesirable, the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or the second bluetooth circuit is in the sleep mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 will stop sniffing packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced. Therefore, the operating time and the standby time of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, the service life of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, and/or the comfort level of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be improved. The aforementioned manner may even allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to enter a power saving mode, a sleep mode, or a sleep mode, so as to further reduce the power consumption of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

Similarly, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the third bluetooth circuit 130 according to the data throughput sniffed by the third bluetooth circuit 130 in the manner described above.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Referring to fig. 4, a simplified partial flowchart of a second embodiment of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device 100 is shown. The operation flow described in fig. 4 can be matched with the operation flow described in fig. 2.

In the embodiment of fig. 4, the secondary bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs the process 302 during the sniff mode to calculate the data throughput of the sniffed packets. However, after the process 302, the secondary bluetooth circuit in this embodiment does not perform the process 304, but performs the process 404 in fig. 4 to transmit the data throughput of the sniffed packet to the primary bluetooth circuit.

For example, after the second bluetooth circuit 120 calculates the data throughput in the process 302, the process proceeds to a process 404. At this time, the second control circuit 127 transmits the data throughput to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

In the process 406, the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the data throughput from the second bluetooth circuit 120 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

Next, the first control circuit 117 proceeds to process 408 to compare the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 with a predetermined threshold.

If the throughput of the data sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 is higher than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is within the normal range and the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 for bluetooth communication is ideal. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 repeats the aforementioned operations of the process 406 and the process 408 without adjusting the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

On the contrary, if the data throughput detected by the second bluetooth circuit 120 is lower than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is not ideal, or the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or even in a sleep mode. In this case, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can perform the same operations as the aforementioned processes 316 to 322 in fig. 3.

As in the embodiment of fig. 3, the first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the sniff mode to the relay mode only when the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 is lower than the predetermined threshold, i.e., the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 becomes undesirable, the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or the second bluetooth circuit is in the sleep mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 will stop sniffing packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced. Therefore, the operating time and the standby time of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, the service life of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, and/or the comfort level of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be improved. The aforementioned manner may even allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to enter a power saving mode, a sleep mode, or a sleep mode, so as to further reduce the power consumption of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 2 and fig. 4, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Referring to fig. 5, a simplified partial flowchart of a method of operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown. The operation flow described in fig. 5 can be matched with the operation flow described in fig. 2.

In the embodiment of fig. 5, the primary bluetooth circuit intermittently performs the process 502 to calculate the data throughput of the packets sniffed by the secondary bluetooth circuit during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit is operating in the sniff mode.

For example, in the process 502, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may calculate the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 according to the frequency of transmitting the missing packets to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In general, the lower the frequency of the first control circuit 117 transmitting the missing packets to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, the more smoothly the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so the higher the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 will be. Conversely, the higher the frequency of the first control circuit 117 transmitting the missing packets to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, the more difficult the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so the lower the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 will be. Therefore, the first control circuit 117 can indirectly calculate the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 according to the frequency of transmitting the missing packets to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

The first control circuit 117 then proceeds to process 408 to compare the calculated data throughput with a predetermined threshold.

If the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is higher than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the amount of packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 is within the normal range and that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 for bluetooth communication is ideal. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 repeats the aforementioned operations of the process 502 and the process 408 without adjusting the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

On the contrary, if the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is lower than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is not ideal, or the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or even in a sleep mode. In this case, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can perform the same operations as the aforementioned processes 316 to 322 in fig. 3.

The first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the sniff mode to the relay mode only when the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is lower than the predetermined threshold, i.e., the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 becomes undesirable, the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or the second bluetooth circuit is in the sleep mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 will stop sniffing packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced. Therefore, the operating time and the standby time of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, the service life of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, and/or the comfort level of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be improved. The aforementioned manner may even allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to enter a power saving mode, a sleep mode, or a sleep mode, so as to further reduce the power consumption of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 2 and fig. 5, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Referring to fig. 6, a simplified partial flowchart of a method of operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention is shown. The operation flow described in fig. 6 can be matched with the operation flow described in fig. 2.

In the embodiment of fig. 6, the primary bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs the process 502 to calculate the data throughput of the packets sniffed by the secondary bluetooth circuit during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit is operating in the sniff mode. However, after the process 502 is performed by the primary bluetooth circuit in this embodiment, the process 408 is not performed, but the process 604 in fig. 6 is performed to transmit the calculated data throughput of the packet to the secondary bluetooth circuit for further determination.

For example, after the first bluetooth circuit 110 calculates the data throughput sniffed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 in the process 502, the process proceeds to the process 604. At this time, the first control circuit 117 transmits the calculated data throughput to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 606, the second bluetooth circuit 120 receives the data throughput from the first bluetooth circuit 110 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

Then, the second control circuit 127 performs the aforementioned process 304 to compare the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 with a predetermined threshold.

If the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is higher than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the amount of packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 is within the normal range and that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 for bluetooth communication is ideal. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 repeats the aforementioned operations of the process 208 and the process 210.

On the contrary, if the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is lower than the predetermined threshold, it indicates that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is not ideal, or the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or even in a sleep mode. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may perform the aforementioned process 306 to generate a first mode switching request, and transmit the aforementioned first mode switching request to the main bluetooth circuit through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may perform the same operations as the aforementioned processes 308 to 322 in fig. 3.

Similar to the embodiment of fig. 5, the first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the sniff mode to the relay mode only when the data throughput calculated by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is lower than the predetermined threshold, i.e., the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 becomes non-ideal, the amount of packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is small, or the second bluetooth circuit is in the sleep mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 will stop sniffing packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced. Therefore, the operating time and the standby time of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, the service life of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be prolonged, and/or the comfort level of the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be improved. The aforementioned manner may even allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to enter a power saving mode, a sleep mode, or a sleep mode, so as to further reduce the power consumption of the second bluetooth circuit 120.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 2 and fig. 6, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

In the embodiments of fig. 2 to 6, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 evaluates whether the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the secondary bluetooth circuit is degraded or whether the packet amount sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is significantly reduced according to the data throughput calculated by the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the sniff mode, and determines whether to switch the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode according to the evaluation result. This is only a partial example and is not intended to limit the actual implementation of the invention. In practice, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may also dynamically determine whether to switch the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit according to the current change of the bluetooth wireless signal environment while the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode.

For example, fig. 7 to 8 are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method for operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 7, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may first perform the aforementioned process 202 to obtain bluetooth connection parameters required for receiving packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. The above description of the operation and the embodiment variations of the process 202 in fig. 2 also apply to the embodiment in fig. 7.

For convenience of description, it is also assumed that the first bluetooth circuit 110 is the member circuit of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 that is currently selected to process the primary task of receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and the other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) play the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In the process 704, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may notify other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and then the first bluetooth circuit 110 will play the role of the master bluetooth circuit and instruct the other member circuits to play the role of the slave bluetooth circuit and operate in the relay mode. That is, the first bluetooth circuit 110 is responsible for processing the main task of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and other member circuits only need to receive the packets forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110, and do not need to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and do not allow other member circuits to transmit commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102.

Then, during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 706.

In the process 706, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and the first control circuit 117 forwards the packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 to other sub-bluetooth circuits via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. For example, the first control circuit 117 may forward the packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In operation, the first control circuit 117 may perform packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 by using the bluetooth connection parameter obtained in the process 202 to receive various packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 or transmit various packets to the remote bluetooth device 102. As can be seen from the operation of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the first bluetooth circuit 110 for packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 may be obtained by the first bluetooth circuit 110 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the second bluetooth circuit 120).

As mentioned above, various suitable packet handshaking mechanisms may be employed between the first Bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote Bluetooth device 102 to reduce or avoid missing packets.

In block 708, the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode to receive the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110. For example, the second control circuit 127 can control the second bluetooth circuit 120 to operate in the relay mode, and utilize the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to receive the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110. As mentioned above, the second control circuit 127 does not use the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode. In other words, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 indirectly obtains the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth circuit 110.

As shown in fig. 7, the slave bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs a process 710 to calculate a received signal quality indicator (signal reception quality indicator) corresponding to the signal reception status of its own bluetooth communication circuit while operating in the sniff mode. For example, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may evaluate the current bluetooth signal receiving condition of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 in process 710 to calculate a corresponding received signal quality indicator. In practice, the received signal quality index may be implemented by a Packet Error Rate (PER), a Bit Error Rate (BER), a signal reception strength (signal reception strength), a quality of service (QoS), or other index values that can represent the current bluetooth signal receiving condition of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

The second control circuit 127 may proceed to flow 712 to compare the received signal quality indicator with a predetermined indicator value.

If the received signal quality indicator calculated by the second control circuit 127 is worse than the predetermined indicator value, it represents that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at that time is not ideal. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may continue to operate in the relay mode and repeat the operations of the aforementioned processes 708 to 712.

On the contrary, if the received signal quality indicator calculated by the second control circuit 127 is better than the predetermined indicator value, it represents that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is ideal enough. In this case, the second bluetooth circuitry 120 may proceed to flow 714.

In process 714, the second control circuit 127 generates a second mode switching request and transmits the second mode switching request to the master bluetooth circuit via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The aforementioned second mode switching request is for requesting the master bluetooth circuit to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and may be implemented in various suitable data formats.

In the process 716, the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives a second mode switching request from the second bluetooth circuit 120 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In process 718, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 determines whether to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode. In this embodiment, after receiving the second mode switching request, the first control circuit 117 may determine whether to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode according to a predetermined rule, and perform a corresponding subsequent processing procedure according to the determination result. If the first control circuit 117 determines that the second bluetooth circuit 120 is not allowed to switch the operation mode, the process 802 of fig. 8 is performed. Otherwise, if the first control circuit 117 determines to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode after determining, the process 806 in fig. 8 is performed.

Since the first bluetooth circuit 110 allows the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 can switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and then the second bluetooth circuit 120 can sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by itself, the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not need to transfer the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120. As a result, the computation load, power consumption, or heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may be increased, but the data bandwidth requirement between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 may be reduced, and the computation load, power consumption, or heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may also be reduced.

Therefore, the first control circuit 117, after receiving the second mode switching request, can evaluate whether there is a factor unsuitable for the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, and if not, can allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode. For example, the first control circuit 117 may allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode if the current operation load of the second bluetooth circuit 120 is lower than a predetermined level, the remaining power is higher than a predetermined threshold, and/or the temperature is lower than a predetermined temperature. For another example, the first control circuit 117 may allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode only when the current operation load of the first bluetooth circuit 110 is higher than a predetermined level, the remaining power is lower than a predetermined threshold, and/or the temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature.

In the process 802, the first control circuit 117 generates a rejection message indicating that the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, and transmits the rejection message to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 804, the second bluetooth circuit 120 receives the rejection message from the first bluetooth circuit 110 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In this case, the second control circuit 127 controls the second bluetooth circuit 120 to continue operating in the relay mode according to the indication of the rejection message, and repeats the operations of the processes 708 to 712.

In the process 806, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 generates a second mode switching indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and transmits the second mode switching indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 808, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 receives a second mode switching indication from the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the second control circuit 127 switches the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120 from the relay mode to the sniff mode according to the second mode switching indication.

Then, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 810, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 812.

In the process 810, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, but the first control circuit 117 does not forward the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 812, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 according to the bluetooth connection parameters obtained in the process 202. In one embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 may sniff all bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In another embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 only sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110, but not sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to devices other than the multi-member bluetooth device 100. As can be seen from the above description of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 for sniffing the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 may be acquired by the second bluetooth circuit 120 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the first bluetooth circuit 110).

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may perform the same operations as the aforementioned processes 210 to 216 in fig. 2.

It should be noted that the aforementioned operation manner of the first control circuit 117 performing the determination procedure of the process 718 and performing the process 806 after determining that the second bluetooth circuit 120 is allowed to switch the operation mode is only an embodiment and is not limited to the practical implementation of the present invention. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may skip the determination procedure of the flow 718 and directly proceed to the flow 806 after receiving the second mode switching request.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, during the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 playing the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit intermittently compares the received signal quality indicator corresponding to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 with the predetermined indicator value to evaluate whether the current bluetooth signal receiving condition of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is significantly improved. As long as the received signal quality indicator of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is worse than the predetermined indicator value, that is, the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is not ideal, the first bluetooth circuit 110 playing the role of the master bluetooth circuit will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the second bluetooth circuit 120 wasting computing resources and power in performing packet sniffing operation with poor performance.

The first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the relay mode to the sniff mode only if the received signal quality indicator of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is better than the predetermined indicator value, i.e., the bluetooth wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 becomes sufficiently ideal. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets that are missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 7 and fig. 8, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Please refer to fig. 9-10, which are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method of operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiments of fig. 9 and 10, the secondary bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs the process 710 to calculate a received signal quality indicator corresponding to the signal reception status of its own bluetooth communication circuit during the relay mode. However, after the process 710, the secondary bluetooth circuit in this embodiment does not perform the process 712, but performs the process 912 in fig. 9 to transmit the calculated received signal quality indicator to the primary bluetooth circuit.

For example, after the second bluetooth circuit 120 calculates the received signal quality indicator in the process 710, the process 912 is performed. At this time, the second control circuit 127 transmits the received signal quality indicator to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

In the process 914, the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the received signal quality indicator from the second bluetooth circuit 120 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

Next, the first control circuit 117 proceeds to process 916 to compare the received signal quality indicator calculated by the second bluetooth circuit 120 with a predetermined indicator.

If the received signal quality indicator calculated by the second control circuit 127 is worse than the predetermined indicator value, it represents that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at that time is not ideal. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may perform the flow 802 in fig. 10.

On the contrary, if the received signal quality indicator calculated by the second control circuit 127 is better than the predetermined indicator value, it represents that the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is ideal enough. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may perform the flow 806 in fig. 10.

In the process 806, the first control circuit 117 generates a second mode switching indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and transmits the second mode switching indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 810, the first control circuit 117 receives the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, but the first control circuit 117 does not forward the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In process 812, the second control circuit 127 uses the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 according to the bluetooth connection parameters obtained in process 202.

Many of the processes in fig. 10 are the same as those described above with respect to the embodiment of fig. 8, and thus the description of the corresponding processes in fig. 8 with respect to their operation and variations of the embodiment also applies to the embodiment of fig. 10.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, the first bluetooth circuit 110 in this embodiment intermittently compares the received signal quality indicator corresponding to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 with a predetermined indicator value during the second bluetooth circuit 120 operating in the relay mode to evaluate whether the current bluetooth signal receiving condition of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is significantly improved. As long as the received signal quality indicator of the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 is worse than the predetermined indicator value, that is, the wireless signal environment of the second bluetooth circuit 120 performing bluetooth communication at the time is not ideal, the first bluetooth circuit 110 playing the role of the master bluetooth circuit will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the second bluetooth circuit 120 wasting computing resources and power in performing packet sniffing operation with poor performance.

Therefore, by using the operation manners shown in fig. 9 and fig. 10, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can dynamically switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and adaptively change the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

It should be noted that the number of the member circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 in the foregoing embodiments can be reduced to two, and can also be increased according to the requirement of the actual circuit application.

The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made by the claims of the present invention should be covered by the present invention.

[ notation ] to show

Multi-member Bluetooth device (Multi-member Bluetooth device)

Remote Bluetooth device (remote Bluetooth device)

A first Bluetooth circuit (first Bluetooth circuit)

A first Bluetooth communication circuit (first Bluetooth communication circuit)

A first packet parsing circuit (first packet parsing circuit)

A first clock synchronizing circuit (first clock synchronizing circuit)

A first control circuit (first control circuit)

120.. a second Bluetooth circuit (second Bluetooth circuit)

A second Bluetooth communication circuit (second Bluetooth communication circuit)

A second packet parsing circuit (second packet matching circuit)

A second clock synchronizing circuit (second clock synchronizing circuit)

A second control circuit (second control circuit)

A third Bluetooth circuit (third Bluetooth circuit).

Claims

1. A multi-member bluetooth device (100) for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device (102), the multi-member bluetooth device (100) comprising:

a master bluetooth circuit (110), comprising:

a first bluetooth communication circuit (111);

a first packet parsing circuit (113) configured to parse packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111); and

a first control circuit (117) coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) and the first packet parsing circuit (113); and

a secondary bluetooth circuit (120) configured to be selectively operable in a sniff mode or a relay mode, the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) comprising:

a second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

a second packet parsing circuit (123) configured to parse packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit (121); and

a second control circuit (127) coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) and the second packet parsing circuit (123);

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the relay mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and forwards the received packet to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the second control circuit (127) receives the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121), but the second control circuit (127) does not sniff the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) switches from the relay mode to the sniff mode if a received signal quality indicator of the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) is better than a predetermined indicator value; and

during the period that the sub-bluetooth circuit (120) is operating in the sniff mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the second control circuit (127) sniffs the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121).

2. The multi-member Bluetooth device (100) of claim 1, wherein the second control circuit (127) calculates the received signal quality indicator, and one of the first control circuit (117) and the second control circuit (127) compares the received signal quality indicator to the predetermined indicator value.

3. A master bluetooth circuit (110) in a multi-member bluetooth device (100), the multi-member bluetooth device (100) for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device (102) and comprising the master bluetooth circuit (110) and a slave bluetooth circuit (120) selectively operable in a sniff mode or a relay mode, the master bluetooth circuit (110) comprising:

a first bluetooth communication circuit (111);

a first control circuit (117) coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) and the first packet parsing circuit (113);

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the relay mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and forwards the received packet to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) receives the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), but the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) does not sniff the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102);

switching the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) from the relay mode to the sniff mode if a received signal quality indicator of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is better than a predetermined indicator value; and

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the sniff mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) sniffs the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102).

4. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 3, wherein the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) calculates the received signal quality indicator, and one of the first control circuit (117) and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) compares the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value.

5. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) according to claim 4, wherein the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is further arranged to compare the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value;

wherein, if the received signal quality indicator is better than the predetermined indicator value, the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) receives a mode switching request generated by the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), wherein the mode switching request is used for requesting the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to allow the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

6. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) according to claim 4, wherein the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is further arranged to transmit the received signal quality indicator to the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the first control circuit (117) is further arranged to compare the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value;

wherein, if the received signal quality indicator is better than the predetermined indicator, the first control circuit (117) transmits a mode switching indication to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) via the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) to indicate the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

7. A secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in a multi-member bluetooth device (100), the multi-member bluetooth device (100) configured for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device (102) and comprising a primary bluetooth circuit (110) and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) comprising:

a second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

a second control circuit (127) coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) and the second packet parsing circuit (123) and configured to control operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in a sniff mode and a relay mode;

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the relay mode, the primary bluetooth circuit (110) receives packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102) and transfers the received packets to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), and the second control circuit (127) receives the packets transferred by the primary bluetooth circuit (110) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121), but the second control circuit (127) does not sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is operating in the sniff mode, the primary bluetooth circuit (110) receives packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102), and the second control circuit (127) sniffs packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121).

8. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 7, wherein the second control circuit (127) calculates the received signal quality indicator, and one of the primary bluetooth circuit (110) and the second control circuit (127) compares the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value.

9. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) according to claim 8, wherein the second control circuit (127) is further arranged to compare the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value;

wherein, if the received signal quality indicator is better than the predetermined indicator, the second control circuit (127) transmits a mode switching request to the primary bluetooth circuit (110) through the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) to request the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to allow the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

10. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) according to claim 8, wherein the second control circuit (127) is further configured to transmit the received signal quality indicator to the primary bluetooth circuit (110) via the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) for the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to compare the received signal quality indicator with the predetermined indicator value;

wherein, if the received signal quality index is better than the predetermined index value, the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) receives a mode switching indication generated by the primary bluetooth circuit (110), and the second control circuit (127) switches the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) from the relay mode to the sniff mode according to the mode switching indication.