CN117651319A

CN117651319A - Efficient radio switching method and circuit for optimizing power consumption in low power scenario

Info

Publication number: CN117651319A
Application number: CN202311109150.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 林英佑; 林峻渭; 甘人方; 黄顶育; 高柏庭; 张家宁; 洪思颖
Original assignee: MediaTek Inc
Current assignee: MediaTek Inc
Priority date: 2022-09-02
Filing date: 2023-08-30
Publication date: 2024-03-05

Abstract

The invention provides a wireless communication method of an electronic device, wherein the electronic device comprises a first radio device and a second radio device, and the maximum bandwidth or the maximum space flow supported by the first radio device is different from the maximum bandwidth or the maximum space flow supported by the second radio device. The wireless communication method includes the steps of: the first radio is used to communicate with another electronic device. Determining whether a parameter of the electronic device meets a condition; in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition, enabling the second radio and communicating with another electronic device using the second radio, and disabling the first radio.

Description

Efficient radio switching method and circuit for optimizing power consumption in low power scenario

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 63/403,307 filed on month 9 and 2 of 2022. The content of this application is incorporated by reference into the present application.

Technical Field

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to wireless network communications and, more particularly, to efficient radio switching for optimizing power consumption based on low power scenarios.

Background

In the everyday use of portable devices with wireless network capabilities, most use cases typically require a much smaller throughput than supported by the portable device. Accordingly, since portable devices have used Radio Frequency (RF) layers supporting high bandwidth and high throughput for everyday use with low Wi-Fi throughput requirements, unnecessary power consumption of the portable devices may result.

Disclosure of Invention

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device with two radios, which may include a physical layer and RF circuitry or only a physical layer or only RF circuitry, which correspond to different bandwidths or spatial streams (number of spatial stream, NSS), and which may be switched to optimize power consumption in low power scenarios to solve the above problems.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a wireless communication method of an electronic apparatus is disclosed, wherein the electronic apparatus includes a first radio device and a second radio device, and a maximum bandwidth or a maximum number of spatial streams supported by the first radio device is different from a maximum bandwidth or a maximum number of spatial streams supported by the second radio device. The wireless communication method comprises the following steps: the first radio is used to communicate with another electronic device. Determining whether a parameter of the electronic device meets a condition; in response to a parameter of the electronic device satisfying a condition, enabling (enabling) the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with another electronic device and disabling (disabling) the first radio.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a circuit of an electronic device is disclosed, wherein the electronic device comprises a first radio and a second radio, a maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the first radio is different from a maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the second radio, and the circuit is configured to perform the steps of: communicating with another electronic device using a first radio; determining whether a parameter of the electronic device meets a condition; in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition, enabling the second radio and communicating with another electronic device using the second radio, and disabling the first radio.

These and other objects of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the various drawing figures and the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a wireless communication method of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating an operation of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating an operation of an electronic device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claims to refer to particular system components. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This application is not intended to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and claims, the terms "include" and "comprise" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "include, but not limited to … …". The terms "couple" and "couples" are intended to mean either an indirect or a direct electrical connection. Thus, if a first device couples to a second device, that connection may be through a direct electrical connection, or through an indirect electrical connection via other devices and connections.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown. As shown in fig. 1, the electronic device 100 includes a circuit including an application layer 110, a transport layer 120, a network layer 130, a medium access control (media access control, MAC) layer 140, two radios 150_1 and 150_2, and an antenna module 160. In this embodiment, the electronic device 100 may be a notebook computer, a cell phone, or any other electronic device capable of wirelessly communicating with other device(s) (e.g., access point 102). In this embodiment, electronic device 100 may communicate with AP 102 using channels corresponding to the 2.4GHz band (e.g., 2.412GHz-2.484 GHz), the 5GHz band (e.g., 4.915GHz-5.825 GHz), or the 6GHz band (e.g., 5.925GHz-7.125 GHz). In addition, each of the radios 150_1 and 150_2 includes a physical layer and a Radio Frequency (RF) circuit.

Each of the radios 150_1 and 150_2 may actively perform data transmission and reception operations, i.e., each of the radios 150_1 and 150_2 may transmit data received from an upper layer to the AP 102 and transmit packets received from the AP 102 to the upper layer. In addition, the antenna module 160 includes a plurality of antennas, wherein a portion of the antennas are used by the radio 150_1 to communicate with the AP 102 and another portion of the antennas are used by the radio 150_2 to communicate with the AP 102.

In the present embodiment, the maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the radio device 150_1 is different from the maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the radio device 150_2. Specifically, the radio 150_1 includes baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry, and the radio 150_1 supports higher bandwidth and/or higher NSS, e.g., the bandwidth corresponding to the radio 150_1 may be 320MHz, and the radio 150_1 may communicate with the AP 102 using two or more antennas (e.g., 2 x 2 multiple-in-multiple-out, MIMO), nss=2). In addition, the radio 150_2 also includes baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry, and the radio 150_2 supports lower bandwidth and/or lower NSS, e.g., the bandwidth corresponding to the radio 150_2 may be 160MHz, and the radio 150_2 may communicate with the AP 102 using only one antenna (i.e., nss=1). In another embodiment, radio 150_1 and radio 150_2 may share the same baseband circuitry, but their RF circuitry is different. Further, since the radio 150_2 supports lower bandwidth and/or lower NSS, the power consumption of the radio 150_2 will be lower than the power consumption of the radio 150_1.

Since the electronic device 100 includes radios 150_1 and 150_2 corresponding to different bandwidths/NSSs and power consumption, the electronic device 100 may select one of the radios 150_1 and 150_2 to wirelessly communicate with the AP 102 with reference to its application or throughput to optimize power consumption.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a method of wireless communication of the electronic device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. In step 200, the process begins, the electronic device 100 is powered on and establishes one or more links with the AP 102. In step 202, one radio (e.g., 150_1) is selected for communication with the AP 102, and the other radio (e.g., 150_2) is powered off or in a power saving mode. In step 204, the MAC layer 140 or circuitry within other layers determines whether a parameter of the electronic device 100 satisfies a condition, and if so, the flow proceeds to step 206; if not, flow returns to step 202 or stays at step 204. In this embodiment, the parameters of the electronic device 100 may include application inputs requiring high throughput, such as Wi-Fi display (WFD) and virtual reality services, or gaming services requiring low throughput; and the parameters of the electronic device 100 may also include transmission control protocol (transmission control protocol, TCP) throughput, user datagram protocol (user datagram protocol, UDP) throughput, received signal strength indicator (received signal strength indicator, RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), packet error rate (packet error rate, PER), location and distance traveled, and/or doppler indicators. In an embodiment, if the application of the electronic device 100 requires a higher throughput or the electronic device 100 has a poor signal quality, wireless communication using the radio 150_1 is preferred. If the application of the electronic device 100 requires a lower throughput and the electronic device 100 has a better signal quality, the radio 150_2 is preferably used for power saving. Specifically, assuming that the radio 150_1 is selected in step 202, if the circuit detects that the TCP or UDP throughput is below a threshold (e.g., 35 Mb/s), the RSSI/SNR is above a threshold, the PER is below a threshold, and/or the electronic device 100 is not moving, the circuit determines that the parameter satisfies the condition. On the other hand, assuming that radio 150_2 is selected in step 202, if the circuitry detects that the TCP or UDP throughput is below a threshold (e.g., 35 Mb/s), the RSSI/SNR is below a threshold, the PER is above a threshold, and/or the electronic device 100 is moving, the circuitry determines that the parameters satisfy the condition.

In step 206, the circuitry determines that the currently unused radio is more suitable for current operation, so the currently used radio (e.g., 150_1) changes Wi-Fi operation mode and uses the changed Wi-Fi operation mode for communication with the AP 102 to determine if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode was successful, and if so, proceeds to step 208; if not, flow returns to step 202. In this embodiment, the currently used radio 150_1 handshakes with the AP 120 using the changed Wi-Fi operation mode to determine whether the bandwidth/NSS corresponding to the radio 150_2 can be successfully used. It should be noted that the operation of changing the Wi-Fi operation mode is known to those skilled in the art, and thus, a further description of the Wi-Fi operation mode is omitted herein.

In step 208, the circuit selects another radio 150_2 for subsequent communication with the AP 102, and the radio 150_1 is powered off or in a power saving mode. Note that in the radio switching step, the setting of the MAC layer 140 is not changed, and the radio 150_2 uses the same channel having the same MAC address as the previously used radio 150_1 for active data transmission and data reception.

Fig. 3 is a timing diagram of the operation of the electronic device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 1-3, initially the electronic device 100 communicates with the AP 102 using the wireless device 150_1, the AP 102 sends data to the wireless device 150_1, and the wireless device 150_1 replies with a block acknowledgement (block acknowledgement, BA) to the AP 102. Thereafter, if it is detected that the parameters of the electronic device 100 meet the conditions (e.g., the throughput is below a threshold or the signal quality is good), the Wi-Fi operation mode is changed, and the radio 150_1 observes the data 102 from the AP to determine if the Wi-Fi operation mode change is successful. At this time, the radio 150_2 may be powered up to avoid a handover gap delay. Then, assuming that the Wi-Fi operation mode change is successful, the radio 150_2 is immediately selected for subsequent operation, and the radio 150_1 is powered off.

Then, the AP 102 transmits a request-to-send (RTS) signal to the electronic device 100, and the radio 150_2 responds to a clear-to-send (CTS) signal. After receiving the CTS signal, the AP 102 starts transmitting data to the electronic device 100. At this time, since the beamforming information for the previously used radio 150_1 is stored in the AP 102, the radio 150_2 may not be able to receive the data. Accordingly, the AP 102 performs Wi-Fi probing to sequentially transmit a null data packet announcement (null data packet announcement, NDPA) and a Null Data Packet (NDP) to the electronic device 100, so that the radio 150_2 generates a beamforming report (beamforming report, BR) including the baseband, RF, and status/information of a currently used channel to the AP 102 for subsequent wireless communication.

Fig. 4 is a timing diagram of the operation of the electronic device 100 according to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 4, initially the electronic device 100 communicates with the AP 102 using the radio 150_1, the AP 102 sends data to the radio 150_1, and the wireless transceiver 150_1 replies with a Block Acknowledgement (BA) to the AP 102. Thereafter, if it is detected that the parameters of the electronic device 100 meet the conditions, such as the throughput is below a threshold or the signal quality is good, the Wi-Fi operation mode is changed, and the radio 150_1 observes the data from the AP 102 to determine whether the Wi-Fi operation mode change is successful. Then, assuming that the Wi-Fi operation mode change was successful, the radio 150_1 communicates with the AP 102 using the changed Wi-Fi operation mode, wherein the initial Wi-Fi operation mode may correspond to a higher bandwidth, e.g., 320MHz and/or higher NSS (e.g., nss=2), and the changed Wi-Fi operation mode may correspond to a lower bandwidth, e.g., 160MHz and/or lower NSS (e.g., nss=1), the same bandwidth/NSS supported by the radio 150_2.

In general, the AP 102 periodically performs Wi-Fi probing to obtain a beamforming report from the electronic device 100. In this case, because the beamforming information stored within the AP 120 now still corresponds to radio 150_1, the circuitry does not immediately switch radios, i.e., radio 150_1 is still used to communicate with AP 102 until the next Wi-Fi probe. Thus, referring to fig. 4, after the Wi-Fi operation mode change is successful, the electronic device 100 still receives the RTS signal and data using the radio 150_1 and transmits the CTS signal and BA to the AP 102.

Then, because the AP 102 periodically performs Wi-Fi probing, the electronic device 100 can estimate Wi-Fi probing time to turn on the radio 150_2 at an appropriate time. For example, the radio 150_2 may be turned on before or after Wi-Fi detection.

Then, when the AP 102 starts to perform Wi-Fi probing, the AP 102 first transmits NDPA to the electronic device 100. In the present embodiment, there are two methods of receiving NDPA for the wireless device 150_2, wherein the first method is that the wireless device 150_2 receives NDPA directly from the AP 102, and the second method is that the wireless device 150_1 receives NDPA from the AP 102 and delivers NDPA to the wireless device 150_2 via an internal channel. Upon receiving the NDPA, circuitry within the electronic device 100 switches radios to select the radio 150_2 for subsequent operation, while the radio 150_1 is powered off or in a power saving mode. The AP 102 then transmits the NDP to the electronic device 100 so that the radio 150_2 generates a beamforming report including the baseband, RF, and status/information of the currently used channel to the AP 102 for subsequent wireless communications.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 4, since the radio 150_1 is still used after the Wi-Fi operation mode change and before the next Wi-Fi probe, and the radio 150_2 is used only after the Wi-Fi probe, the electronic device 100 is unlikely to be unable to receive the packet from the AP 102, so that the packet error rate can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the electronic apparatus 100 has only two radios 150_1 and 150_2, however, this feature is not a limitation of the present invention. In other embodiments, the electronic device 100 may have a first radio, a second radio, and a third radio, where the first radio supports a higher bandwidth and/or higher NSS, the second radio supports a medium bandwidth and/or medium NSS, and the third radio supports a lower bandwidth and/or lower NSS. Further, a first radio may be used when the electronic device 100 has a higher throughput or lower signal quality, a second radio may be used when the electronic device 100 has a medium throughput or medium signal quality, and a third radio may be used when the electronic device 100 has a lower throughput or higher signal quality. Such alternative designs fall within the scope of the invention.

In short, in the wireless communication method of the present invention, by providing two radios having different bandwidths and/or different NSSs, a radio having a higher bandwidth and/or a higher NSS can be used when an electronic device has a higher throughput or a lower signal quality, and a radio having a lower bandwidth and/or a lower NSS can be used when an electronic device has a lower throughput or a higher signal quality. Accordingly, power consumption of the electronic device can be optimized.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the apparatus and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the scope and metes of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An efficient radio switching method for optimizing power consumption in a low power scenario, wherein the electronic device comprises a first radio and a second radio, each of the first radio and the second radio comprising a physical layer and Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry or only the physical layer or only the RF circuitry, a maximum bandwidth or maximum spatial stream Number (NSS) supported by the first radio being different from a maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the second radio, and the wireless communication method comprises:

communicating with another electronic device using the first radio;

determining whether the parameters of the electronic equipment meet a condition; and

in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition, enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device and disabling the first radio.

2. The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating with the other electronic device using the first radio comprises:

communicating with the other electronic device via a channel using the first radio having a Media Access Control (MAC) address; and

the step of enabling the second radio and communicating with the further electronic device using the second radio comprises:

the second radio with the same MAC address is used to communicate with the other electronic device via the same channel.

3. The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise at least a portion of an application of the electronic device, a total throughput of the electronic device, a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a Packet Error Rate (PER), a location and a distance of movement of the electronic device, and a doppler indicator.

4. The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition comprises:

in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition, changing a Wi-Fi operating mode and determining whether the changed Wi-Fi operating mode handshake with the other electronic device is successful;

enabling the second radio and communicating with the other electronic device using the second radio if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully.

5. The wireless communication method of claim 4, wherein the maximum bandwidth or the maximum NSS supported by the first radio is greater than the maximum bandwidth or the maximum NSS supported by the second radio, and the step of communicating with the other electronic device using the first radio comprises:

communicating with the other electronic device using the first radio having a first bandwidth and a second NSS; and

the step of changing the Wi-Fi operation mode and determining whether the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshake with the other electronic device is successful in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition comprises:

changing the Wi-Fi operation mode to have a second bandwidth and a second NSS, and determining whether the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshake with the other electronic device is successful, wherein the second bandwidth is less than the first bandwidth or the second bandwidth NSS is less than the first NSS; and

if the changed Wi-Fi operating mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and communicating with the other electronic device using the second radio comprises:

enabling the second radio and communicating with the other electronic device using the second radio having the second bandwidth and the second NSS.

6. The wireless communication method of claim 4, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device comprises:

if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the second radio is immediately enabled and used to communicate with the other electronic device and the first radio is disabled.

7. The wireless communication method of claim 4, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device comprises:

if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode is successful in handshaking with the other electronic device, the first radio is still used to communicate with the other electronic device until the other electronic device performs Wi-Fi detection operations with the electronic device.

8. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device further comprises:

enabling the second radio to respond to a beamforming report to the other electronic device when the other electronic device performs the Wi-Fi probe operation; and

communicating with the other electronic device using the second radio.

9. A circuit for an efficient radio switching electronic device for optimizing power consumption in a low power scenario, wherein the electronic device comprises a first radio and a second radio, each of the first radio and the second radio comprising a physical layer and Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry or only the physical layer or only the RF circuitry, a maximum bandwidth or maximum Number of Spatial Streams (NSS) supported by the first radio being different from a maximum bandwidth or maximum NSS supported by the second radio, and the circuit is configured to perform the steps of:

communicating with another electronic device using the first radio;

10. The circuit of claim 9, wherein the step of communicating with the other electronic device using the first radio comprises:

11. The circuitry of claim 9, wherein the parameters comprise at least a portion of an application of the electronic device, a total throughput of the electronic device, a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a Packet Error Rate (PER), a location and a distance of movement of the electronic device, and a doppler indicator.

12. The circuit of claim 9, wherein enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device in response to the parameter of the electronic device satisfying the condition comprises:

13. The circuit of claim 12, wherein the maximum bandwidth or the maximum NSS supported by the first radio is greater than the maximum bandwidth or the maximum NSS supported by the second radio, and the step of communicating with the other electronic device using the first radio comprises:

14. The circuitry of claim 12, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device comprises:

15. The circuitry of claim 12, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device comprises:

16. The circuitry of claim 15, wherein if the changed Wi-Fi operation mode handshakes with the other electronic device successfully, the step of enabling the second radio and using the second radio to communicate with the other electronic device further comprises:

communicating with the other electronic device using the second radio.