KR20020027563A - Optical data interface for wireless phones - Google Patents

Abstract

It is a system for connecting the radiotelephone 20 to the external circuit 22. The system includes a first optical data interface adapter 42 connected to the radiotelephone. The system also includes a second optical data interface adapter 24. The optical fiber cable 28 connects the first optical data interface adapter to the second optical data interface adapter 24. In a particular embodiment, the radiotelephone is a cellular telephone 20 and the computer 22 is connected to the second optical data interface adapter 24. The first and second optical data interface adapters 41 and 24 include optical transmitters 56 and 54 and photodetectors 58 and 52. In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention is implemented as a system for making a radiotelephone in a computer 22. The system includes a computer 22 external to the telephone 20 and an optical data link 28 between the radiotelephone and the computer. Software running on the computer controls the radiotelephone by the optical data link 28, allowing the computer to make a phone call through the radiotelephone. In another exemplary embodiment, the present invention is implemented as a system for measuring the performance of a radiotelephone and includes a computer optically connected to a radiotelephone for transmitting information between the radiotelephone and a computer. Measurement software running on the computer controls the flow of information so that the computer obtains performance information related to the radiotelephone.

Description

Optical Data Interface for Cordless Phones {OPTICAL DATA INTERFACE FOR WIRELESS PHONES}

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for data transmission between wireless telephones and other electronic devices.

Description of the related technology

Recently, a number of mobile phones can be controlled and viewed using a computer. In many cases, the computer can set the state of the phone or retrieve the current state, condition, or level. Thus, a number of measurements can be performed by running special telephone test software and connecting a computer to the cellular telephone under test.

Usually, a conventional metal conductor cable such as a standard serial computer cable is used to connect a cellular telephone to a computer. However, often this cable degrades the radiation performance of a cellular telephone when it is connected between a telephone and a computer. Typically, when connecting a data cable to a cellular telephone, the data cable is connected to internal telephone ground, disturbing the antenna radiation pattern of the telephone and significantly degrading its performance. Radio frequency (RF) interference emitted from the cable may cause greater performance degradation.

In short, existing wired data cables often degrade the radio performance of cellular and personal communication system (PCS) telephones. Thus, often, expensive acoustic devices are needed to make phone FM measurements.

Infrared data connection is an alternative method of providing a data interface to a cordless telephone. Typically, infrared energy is transmitted without an cable between an infrared sensor on a telephone and an infrared sensor attached to a computer. However, datalink performance is degraded by bright sunlight. This is a problem in an outdoor telephone test environment. Moreover, infrared datalinks are susceptible to blockage due to objects located between the telephone and the associated external computer. Moreover, external electromagnetic signals from other infrared devices, such as television remote controls, can cause significant interference, which can degrade the performance of infrared datalinks.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method for efficient data transmission between an external circuit such as a computer and a wireless telephone which minimizes telephone performance deterioration. There is also a need for cost effective systems that improve the accuracy of cellular / PCS telephone measurements in environments characterized by electromagnetic noise.

Summary of the Invention

This need in the art is solved by a system for connecting a wireless telephone to the external circuit of the invention. In an exemplary embodiment, the system of the present invention is configured for use with a cellular telephone and an external computer. The system of the present invention includes a first optical data interface adapter and a second optical data interface adapter designed to be used together with a wireless telephone. The optical fiber cable connects the first optical data interface adapter to the second optical data interface adapter.

In a particular embodiment, the radiotelephone is a cellular telephone and the computer is connected to a second optical data interface adapter. The first and second optical data interface adapters include an optical transmitter and a photodetector.

In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention is implemented as a system for making a wireless call from a computer via a cordless phone. The system includes an optical computer and an optical computer link between the telephone and the computer. Software running on the computer controls the cordless phone via the optical data link, allowing the computer to make calls through the cordless phone.

Moreover, this invention is a system which measures a wireless telephone, Comprising: A computer is optically connected to the wireless telephone. Measurement software running on a computer controls the flow of information so that information related to the radiotelephone is obtained by the computer.

The novel design of the present invention is facilitated by the use of fiber optic cables to optically transmit data to / from a computer. This optical transmission reduces or eliminates interference between data transmission across the fiber optic cable and the electromagnetic energy transmitted and received by the radiotelephone.

Brief description of the drawings

1 is a diagram showing a cellular telephone connected to a conventional data interface adapter and an associated cable connecting to an external computer.

2 illustrates a configuration made in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of FIG. 2 with a wireless data interface adapter in accordance with the teachings of the present invention for creating a wireless data interface between a cellular telephone and a computer.

4 is a detailed block diagram of the configuration of FIG. 2 showing various electrical components.

5 is a flow chart of the software of the present invention that facilitates communication between a radiotelephone and a computer via the data interface of FIGS. 2, 3, and 4;

Description of the invention

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described through exemplary embodiments for specific applications, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art having access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional variations, applications, and embodiments in the scope of the invention and other fields in which the invention is quite useful.

The following review of the operation of conventional cellular telephone data interface adapters and associated cables is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention.

1 is a diagram of a cellular telephone 10 connected to a conventional data interface adapter 12 and an associated cable 14 connecting to an external computer (not shown). Since the antenna current proceeds along the cable 14, it is easy to interfere with the data transmission across the cable 14, thereby changing the radiation pattern of the antenna system of the telephone. In addition, the noise generated by the digital bit stream in the cable 14 may interfere with cellular wireless transmit and receive communication signals by the cellular telephone 10.

2 is a diagram of a configuration constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. The cellular telephone 20 and the computer 22 are equipped with a telephone optical fiber data interface adapter 24 and a computer optical fiber data interface adapter 26, respectively. The two adapters are connected to each other by an optical fiber cable 28. Antenna current is deflected in the telephone fiber optic data interface adapter 24 and does not interfere with data transmission across the fiber optic cable 28. Noise generated by the digital signal in the computer 22 is deflected in the computer fiber optic data interface adapter 26 to prevent or interfere with noise interference with cellular telephone radio signal transmission and reception.

The optical fiber data interface adapters 24 and 26 may be provided with a photodetector (not shown) and a transmitter, as known in the art. These devices are commercially available. For example, the transmitter can be purchased from Siemens as an SFH750V transmitter, and the photodetector can be purchased from Siemens as an SFH551 / 1-V-1 photodetector. For transmission via the fiber optic cable 28, the optical transmitter facilitates the conversion of electrical signals into optical signals. In a preferred embodiment, the fiber optic cable is an EHV4002 fiber optic cable from Mitsubishi.

Unlike conventional methods of providing a data interface to a cellular telephone, the unique design of the present invention does not interfere with the antenna radiation pattern of the cellular telephone, and does not cause interference between the computer electronics and the transmission and reception of the cellular telephone. It facilitates data transmission between the telephone 20 and the computer 22. Thus, the present invention is ideal for applications involving the use of cellular telephone 20 as a modem for computer 22.

In this exemplary embodiment, software running on computer 22 controls cellular telephone 20 to operate as a computer modem. Additional software, described in more detail below, is provided for the execution of receiving data from the telephone 20 by the computer 22 in order to quantify the performance of the telephone 20. By accessing the teachings of the present invention, those skilled in the art can more easily develop and implement software, including additional software, as described in more detail below.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of FIG. 1 mounted to a cellular telephone wireless data interface adapter 40 and a computer wireless data interface adapter 42 of the present invention for generating a wireless data interface 44 between the cellular telephone 20 and the computer 22. 2 is a diagram of a cellular telephone 20 and a computer 22. Antenna current is deflected in the cellular telephone wireless data interface adapter 40, and noise generated by the digital signal in the computer 22 is deflected in the computer wireless data interface adapter 42. The air interface 44 replaces the optical fiber cable 28 of FIG. 2. In this exemplary embodiment, the wireless interface is implemented by optical transmission, such as a laser transmitter from Siemes, or by infrared transmission by a Hewlett Packard IRDA infrared transceiver.

FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram of the configuration of FIG. 2 showing various electrical components within computer fiber optic data interface adapter 24 and telephone wireless data interface adapter 42. As shown in FIG. This configuration includes a computer 22, a computer optical fiber data interface adapter 24, an optical fiber cable, a telephone wireless data interface adapter 42, and a cellular telephone 20 from left to right.

The computer optical fiber data interface adapter (24) has a RS-232 (50) for transistor transistor logic (TTL) driver, from left to right, a first photodetector 52 and a first optical transmitter 54 configured in parallel. . The optical fiber cable 28 connects a first photodetector 52 to a second transmitter 56 and a first transmitter 54 to a second photodetector 58, both of which have an optical data interface adapter 42. Is in. The second transmitter 56 and the second photodetector 58 are connected to the cellular telephone 20 via a standard connection system.

In this particular embodiment, the optical fiber cable is a duplex plastic optical fiber cable. The interface between the TTL driver 50 and the first photodetector 52 and the interface between the TTL driver 50 and the first optical transmitter 54 are standard interfaces known in the art. The TTL driver 50 is manufactured from Analog Devie Inc part number ADM202EARW, a dual RS-232 driver / receiver. Photodetectors 52 and 58 are Siemens SFH551 / 1-V-1 plastic optical fiber integrated photodetectors. Transmitters 54 and 56 are Siemens SFH750V plastic optical fiber transmission diodes. Duplex optical fiber cable 28 is a Mitsubishi EHV4002 1000 micron 2 plastic optical fiber cable.

In operation, the TTL data going from the computer 22 to the cellular telephone 20 is transferred to a TTL driver 50 which is a standard serial bus driver. As is known in the art, the TTL driver 50 can adjust two transmission paths and two reception paths. This TTL data is formatted for RS-232 serial transmission and transmitted to the first transmitter 54. The first transmitter 54 converts the serial electrical data into optical fiber cable 28 serial optical data, which is transmitted to the second photodetector 58 via the optical fiber cable 28, where the electrical signal is again transmitted. After being converted to, it is delivered to cellular telephone 20. The cellular telephone 20 then processes the electrical serial data on a baseband chip (not shown) by a circuit such as a baseband processor (not shown).

Similarly, the TTL serial data transmitted from the cellular telephone 20 to the computer 22 proceeds to the second optical transmitter 56 where it is converted into optical TTL serial data and transmitted over the optical fiber cable 28. After being sent to one photodetector 52, it is detected by the first photodetector and converted into electrical TTL serial data. Electrical TTL serial data is passed to the TTL driver 50 and converted into RS-232 format. This TTL data is then sent to the computer 22 for further processing.

The TTL driver 50 may be replaced with another type of driver without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, the position of the TTL driver 50 can be changed to the cellular telephone optical data interface adapter 42 without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is also possible to include other additional drivers within interface adapters 24 and 42 and / or computer 22 or cellular telephone 20 without departing from the scope of the present invention.

5 is a software flow diagram 70 of the present invention that facilitates communication between a radiotelephone and a computer (shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) by the data interface of the present invention (shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4). With reference to FIG. 2, software 70 includes routines that are on the radiotelephone computer (not shown) within computer 22 and in radiotelephone 20.

In the initial power check step 72, software running on the computer 22 checks whether the radiotelephone 20 is turned on. If the radiotelephone 20 is not turned on, the software 70 ends. If the radiotelephone 20 is turned on, control proceeds to a command waiting step 74.

In the instruction waiting step 74, the software operating on the computer 22 waits for data requests and / or other user instructions from the user of the computer 22. Commands and / or requests may be entered by conventional input devices such as keyboards, mice or combinations thereof. In the command waiting step 74, if no command is input for a predetermined time, the radiotelephone 20 is turned off, or the user issues an EXIT command to terminate the software 70. However, if software running on the computer 22 receives a command other than a user's data request and / or an EXIT command, control proceeds to a communication step 76.

In the communication step 76, the software executing on the computer 22 initiates communication with the radiotelephone 20 (via the software executing on the wireless telephone computer), and the computer 22 in the instruction waiting step 74. Transmit the appropriate command and / or request to the radiotelephone 20 based on the command and / or request received via the software executing on the. Once the radiotelephone 20 receives a command and / or request via the optical data interface 28, control passes to a processing step 78, in which a software routine executing on the radiotelephone 20 is executed. The request and / or command is processed to send the appropriate response in the reverse direction to software executing on the computer 22. The details of the software routines for executing on the radiotelephone 20 that enable the establishment of communication and to process requests and / or commands can be developed by those skilled in the art without difficulty. Once the software routine executing on the radiotelephone 20 processes the request and / or the command, control passes back to the command wait step 74 to form a loop consisting of steps 74, 76 and 78, In step 74, if the phone is off, the user issues a shutdown command, or the software routine times out, it ends.

In the above, this invention was demonstrated with reference to the specific Example of a specific application. Those skilled in the art will appreciate additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope of the present invention as those having access to the teachings of the present invention.

Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover any and all such applications, modifications, and embodiments within the scope of the invention.

Claims (11)

In a system for connecting a cordless telephone to an external circuit, A first optical data interface adapter connected to the radiotelephone and configured for use with the wireless telephone; A second optical data interface adapter connected to the circuit; And And an optical fiber cable connecting the first optical data interface adapter to the second optical data interface adapter. The method of claim 1, And said cordless telephone is a cellular telephone. The method of claim 1, The electrical circuit is a computer. The method of claim 1, And the first and second optical data interface adapters comprise an optical transmitter and a photodetector. In a system for transmitting information between a computer and a cordless telephone, An optical data interface link between the computer and the wireless telephone; And And software running on the computer that controls the flow of information between the computer and the radiotelephone. In a system for generating a wireless call from a computer, wireless telephone; A computer external to the radiotelephone; An optical data link between the radiotelephone and the computer; And And software running on the computer that controls the radiotelephone via the optical data link so that the computer can make a call through the radiotelephone. The method of claim 6, The cordless telephone comprises a telephone data interface adapter to the cordless telephone, And the computer includes a computer data interface adapter for the computer. The method of claim 6, And said optical data link comprises an optical fiber cable connecting said wireless telephone data interface adapter to said computer data interface adapter. The method of claim 7, wherein Wherein said telephone data interface adapter and said computer data interface adapter comprise a transmitter and a photodetector, respectively. In a system for measuring the performance of a cordless telephone, A computer optically connected to the radiotelephone for transmitting information between the radiotelephone and the computer; And And measurement software running on the computer for controlling the information to obtain frequency modulation information related to the radiotelephone by the computer. In a method for facilitating communication between a computer and a cordless telephone, Waiting for user requests and / or commands entered by the user on the computer; In response to receiving a user request and / or command from the computer, initiating communication between the computer and the wireless telephone via an optical interface between the computer and the wireless telephone; And In response to receiving the user request and / or command received from the computer via the optical interface, processing the request and / or command through software executing on the radiotelephone. Way.