WO2024013170A1

WO2024013170A1 - A peripheral apparatus for providing a host electronic device with a wireless communication interface via a data bus

Info

Publication number: WO2024013170A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/069191
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michel Germe
Original assignee: Signify Holding B.V.
Priority date: 2022-07-14
Filing date: 2023-07-11
Publication date: 2024-01-18

Abstract

A peripheral apparatus (200) for connecting to a host electronic device (300) via a data bus (250), the peripheral apparatus (200) comprising a first communication unit (210) configured to carry out communication according to an optical wireless communication interface; a second communication unit (220) configured to carry out communication according to a radio frequency, RF, communication interface; a switch (230) configured to switch (230) between the first communication unit (210) and the second communication unit (220) for data communication on the data bus (250); wherein the switch (230) is configured to switch on the first communication unit (210) when an optical signal is detected by the peripheral apparatus (200).

Description

A peripheral apparatus for providing a host electronic device with a wireless communication interface via a data bus

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of optical wireless communication, such as Li-Fi communication. More particularly, various methods, apparatus, systems, and computer- readable media are disclosed herein related to the integration of an optical front end in an end device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To enable more and more electronic devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones to connect wirelessly to the Internet, wireless communication confronts unprecedented requirements on data rates and link qualities, and such requirements keep on growing year over year, considering the emerging digital revolution related to Intemet-of- Things (loT). Radio frequency technology like Wi-Fi has limited spectrum capacity to embrace this revolution. In the meanwhile, light fidelity (Li-Fi) is drawing more and more attention with its intrinsic security enhancement and capability to support higher data rates over the available bandwidth in visible light, Ultraviolet (UV), and Infrared (IR) spectra. Furthermore, Li-Fi is directional and shielded by light blocking materials, which provides it with the potential to deploy a larger number of access points, as compared to Wi-Fi, in a dense area of users by spatially reusing the same bandwidth. These key advantages over wireless radio frequency communication make Li-Fi a promising secure solution to mitigate the pressure on the crowded radio spectrum for loT applications and indoor wireless access. Other possible benefits of Li-Fi may include guaranteed bandwidth for a certain user, and the ability to function safely in areas otherwise susceptible to electromagnetic interference. Therefore, Li-Fi is a very promising technology to enable the next generation of immersive connectivity.

In a conventional optical wireless communication (OWC) system, an access point is typically deployed on the ceiling, while the end point with an OWC interface is typically connected or communicatively coupled to an end device as a separate entity, such as a USB dongle. The end device can be a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, a remote controller, a smart TV, a display device, a storage device, a home appliance, or another smart electronic device. In order to boost a wide adoption of Li-Fi communication, it is thus highly desirable that the end point or the optical front end (OFE) for Li-Fi communication can be partially or fully integrated in an end device.

With an OFE module partially or fully integrated in an end device, other attractive application scenarios may be enabled. For example, two end devices may communicate to each other via a direct OWC link, instead of via an AP. Thus, a peer-to-peer OWC system may be constructed.

WO2022013146A1 is related to an end device selectively enabling at least one out of two available air interfaces, RF or optical wireless communication, to connect to an access point.

W02019106341A1 is related to an access point that is configured to transmit the data to further devices using the optical wireless transceiver and/or non-optical wireless transceiver.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To facilitate the integration of an OWC interface or an OFE in an end device, it is beneficial to reuse an existing connector, interface, or data bus in the end device. It is proposed to assemble a peripheral apparatus with an OWC interface for connecting to the end device, such as a smartphone, a tablet, or another electronic device, by reusing an existing data bus.

In view of the above, the present disclosure is directed to methods, apparatus, and systems for providing a peripheral apparatus for the integration of OWC interface in an end device. More particularly, the goal of this invention is achieved by a peripheral apparatus as claimed in claim 1, and by a system as claimed in claims 14.

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention a peripheral apparatus is provided. A peripheral apparatus comprises a data bus configured to connect to a host electronic device; a first communication unit configured to carry out communication according to an optical wireless communication interface; a second communication unit configured to carry out communication according to a radio frequency, RF, communication interface; and a switch configured to switch between the first communication unit and the second communication unit for data communication on the data bus. The switch is configured to switch on the first communication unit when an optical signal is detected by the peripheral apparatus. The peripheral apparatus is a network adapter configured to provide either the optical wireless communication interface or the RF communication interface to the host electronic device.

The peripheral apparatus may be a network adapter customized according to the present invention on the basis of a conventional Wi-Fi adapter.

The peripheral apparatus may be a pluggable network adapter connected to the host device via the data bus.

The optical wireless communication may be carried out in visible light, Ultraviolet (UV), and Infrared (IR) spectra. Thus, the optical wireless communication may also be called a LiFi communication or a Visible Light Communication (VLC). As a derivative of optical wireless communication, Li-Fi provides high data rate optical communication. There are different standardization activities related to LiFi communication. ITU G.9991 standard for indoor Visible Light Communication (VLC) is one of the earliest standard for high-speed wireless communications with visible light and infrared. IEEE has formed IEEE 802.1 Ibb Task Force to develop and ratify the Global standard for LiFi.

The host electronic device may be an end device, and the peripheral apparatus provides two alternative communication interfaces to the end device in a flexible manner. The end device may be a laptop, a tablet, a computer, a remote controller, a smart TV, a display device, a Li-Fi USB hub, a storage device, a speaker, a home appliance, or another smart electronic device. The optical signal may be sent by an access point (AP) for optical wireless communication (OWC). The optical signal may also be sent by a peer device with OWC capability for establishing a peer-to-peer OWC link. Therefore, the peripheral apparatus will enable the OWC interface when it is either in the coverage of an OWC AP or in the coverage of a peer device with OWC capability. Otherwise, the RF communication interface will be provided.

The optical signal may be a data signal for optical communication such as an OWC AP is in communication with a further device in the cell. The optical signal may also be an optical beacon signal sent by the OWC AP periodically for advertising configuration information of the optical cell. The optical beacon signal may be an out-of-band optical signal, which is transmitted on another frequency channel different from the band for optical data communication. Alternatively, the optical beacon signal may also be transmitted on a narrow frequency channel, such as a sub-channel, inside the band for optical data communication.

In one example, the optical signal is detected by the first communication unit. The first communication unit may be a complete optical transceiver comprising an optical front end (OFE) and a baseband module. The OFE module implements the conversion between electrical signals and optical signals for OWC communication. The optical transmitter is used to convert the electrical transmitting signals to output optical signals via the light source. The optical receiver is used to convert the received optical signals to output electrical signals via the light sensor for further signal processing. Preferably, the optical transmitter may further comprise a driver to regulate the power required for the light source. The optical receiver may further comprise an amplifier to condition the received signals by the light sensor to make the signals more suitable for further processing in the electrical circuits. The amplifier may be a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), which is a current to voltage converter implemented with one or more operational amplifiers. Preferably, the TIA is located close to the light sensor to amplify the signal with the least amount of noise.

And in this case, the optical signal may be detected by the first communication unit directly. Thus, in an initialization phase, the first communication unit may be first turned on for a certain period of time for detecting the optical signal. When there is no optical signal detected, the switch will switch on the second communication unit for enabling RF communication interface.

In another example, the peripheral apparatus further comprises a signal detector configured to detect a presence of the optical signal.

The signal detector may be an energy detector. In case of the first communication unit being a complete optical transceiver, the first communication unit may only turn on its optical front end to convert optical signal into electrical signal, while the baseband module is in a sleeping mode for power saving. And then the signal detector acting as an energy detector is used to estimate the presence of the optical signal by performing energy detection on the electrical signal.

Beneficially, the first communication unit is a first baseband module of the optical wireless communication interface, and the front end of the optical wireless communication interface is integrated in the host electronic device and communicatively connected to the first baseband module via another connection different from the data bus.

In this setup, the optical front end is integrated in the host electronic device and communicatively connected to the first baseband module. Since optical wireless communication or LiFi communication typically requires line-of-sight communication, the benefit of this setup is that by placing the OFE in the host electronic device, the field of view of the OFE may be optimized for communicating to another device, such as an optical access point or a peer device, depending on the type of the host electronic device. In the meanwhile, it leaves more freedom in connecting the peripheral apparatus to the host electronic device. For example, the peripheral apparatus may be connected to an existing slot available in the host electronic device, such as inside of a laptop, without considering the line-of-sight requirement of the optical wireless communication.

The OFE integrated in the host electronic device may be configured to convert a received optical signal into an electrical signal. And then the first communication unit or the first baseband module is configured to detect the optical signal by measuring the electrical signal. Alternatively, the signal detector acting as an energy detector is used to estimate the presence of the optical signal by performing energy detection on the electrical signal.

In one example, the data bus is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCI Express, bus.

PCI Express is also usually abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, which is a highspeed serial computer expansion bus standard designed to replace the earlier PCI-, PCI-X and AGP bus standards.

In another example, the data bus is a mini PCI Express bus.

Mini PCI Express bus, also known as Mini PCIe or Mini PCI-E, mPCIe, is a replacement for PCI Express with a smaller form factor.

In a further example, the data bus is a mini Serial AT Attachment, mini SATA, bus.

In a further example, the data bus is a M.2 bus.

Preferably, the optical wireless communication interface is according to a Li- Fi communication protocol.

In one example, ITU-T G.9960 and ITU-T G.9961 describes the ITU recommendation for in-home networks regarding the system architecture and the physical layer.

In another example, the Li-Fi communication protocol may be an IEEE 802.11 standard (e.g., IEEE802.1 Ibb) or an ITU G.9991 standard regarding high-speed optical wireless data communication.

Beneficially, the second communication unit is placed on a daughter PCB board on or connected to the peripheral apparatus.

An RF module with antenna output may be available as a commercial product packaged on a daughter PCB board. More preferably, the RF communication interface is according to an IEEE 802.11 based protocol.

In this case, the RF communication interface may be implemented as a Wi-Fi module.

Beneficially, the switch is configured to switch on the first communication unit when a signal strength of the optical signal is above a predefined threshold.

Instead of switching on the first communication unit for data communication whenever there is an optical signal detected, a predefined threshold may be used to evaluate the quality of the optical link. And then, the optical communication interface is turned on only then the quality is sufficiently good, such as above the predefined threshold. A user of the host electronic device or the peripheral apparatus may also adjust the threshold values to indicate his or her preference for selecting a communication interface between the two candidates.

Advantageously, the host electronic device is a computer, a laptop, a tablet, a remote controller, a smart TV, a display device, a speaker, a home appliance, or another smart electronic device.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention a system is provided. A system comprising a host electronic device and a peripheral apparatus according to the present invention; wherein the peripheral apparatus is configured to provide the host electronic device with either the optical wireless communication interface or the RF communication interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the same parts throughout the different figures. Also, the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates co-existence of an OWC network and an RF network;

FIG. 2 demonstrates a basic block diagram of a peripheral apparatus;

FIG. 3 illustrates a system comprising a peripheral apparatus and a host electronic device; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an implementation of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

Optical wireless communication, or LiFi communication, is foreseen as a very promising technology. However, massive adoption of LiFi technology may be achieved only when a LiFi transceiver can be easily embedded in an electronic device. Although it appears to be easier to embed a LiFi transceiver in a laptop than in a smartphone, there are still quite some technical constraints such as the limited number of available interfaces with the motherboard to transfer data for wireless communication. In most of cases, one single M.2 or mSATA or PCIE (mini PCIE) slot is available in laptops/ tablets, and this interface is already used for RF based wireless communication, e.g., Wi-Fi, BLE, 4G/5G cellular communication. Therefore, it is the intention to reuse the same interface that is already available in the electronic device and to incorporate optical wireless communication interface.

FIG. 1 illustrates co-existence of an OWC network and an RF network. As illustrated in the figure, an OWC cell and an RF cell are deployed in the same area with the two access points (APs) placed next to each other. The coverage areas of the OWC AP and the RF AP are illustrated with dash lines. Since optical wireless communication usually requires line-of-sight communication, the coverage area of an OWC AP is typically smaller than an RF AP, which mainly depending on the beam angle of the optical transceiver of the OWC AP. The optical cell and the RF cell may also have an overlapping area. It may also be the case that the optical cell is greatly or fully covered by the RF cell.

When the end device EP is located in the coverage area of the optical cell, it may preferably select the optical link for a higher data rate and/or a more secure link. When the end device EP is located in an overlapping area of the optical cell and the RF cell, it may select between the optical link and the RF link by evaluating the detected optical signal against a threshold. Huts, it may use the optical link only when the link quality is sufficiently good. The peripheral apparatus as disclosed in the present invention is connected to the end device to assist the selection between the two communication interfaces.

FIG. 2 demonstrates a block diagram of a peripheral apparatus 200. As a basic setup, the peripheral apparatus 200 comprises a first communication unit 210, a second communication unit 220, a switch 230, and optionally a signal detector 240. The first communication unit 210 is configured to carry out communication according to an optical wireless communication interface. The second communication unit 220 is configured to carry out communication according to a RF communication interface. The switch 230 is configured to switch between the first communication unit 210 and the second communication unit 220 for data communication on the data bus 250. The switch 230 is further configured to switch on the first communication unit 210 when an optical signal is detected by the peripheral apparatus 200.

The peripheral apparatus 200 is a network adapter configured to provide either the optical wireless communication interface or the RF communication interface to the host electronic device.

The peripheral apparatus 200 may be a network adapter customized according to the present invention on the basis of a conventional Wi-Fi adapter.

The peripheral apparatus 200 may be a pluggable network adapter connected to the host device 300 via the data bus 250.

The optical signal may be detected by the peripheral apparatus 200 in two manners. In the first option, the optical signal may be detected by the first communication unit 210. In this case, the first communication unit 210 comprises a complete optical transceiver including an optical front end and a baseband module. The optical signal may be then detected by the first communication unit directly. Thus, in an initialization phase, the first communication unit may be first turned on for a certain period of time for detecting the optical signal. When there is no optical signal detected, the switch will switch on the second communication unit for enabling RF communication interface. Once a data link ends or the location of the peripheral apparatus changes, such an initialization phase may be restarted again or periodically for detecting the presence of an optical cell.

In the second option, the peripheral apparatus 200 may further comprise a dedicated signal detector 240 configured to perform energy detection of the optical signal. In this option, the first communication unit may be either a complete optical transceiver or merely a baseband module with the optical front end deployed in the host electronic device. And then, the optical front end either comprised in the first communication unit or deployed in the host electronic device converts the optical signal into electrical signal, and the signal detector performs energy detection on the converted electrical signal.

FIG. 3 illustrates a system 100 comprising a host electronic device 300 and a peripheral apparatus 200 according to the present invention. The peripheral apparatus 200 is configured to provide the host electronic device 300 with either an OWC interface or an RF communication interface, depending on the detection of an optical signal. The presence of an optical signal indicates that the host electronic device 300 is in the coverage area of an OWC AP, and thus preferably selecting OWC interface.

A threshold may be used to estimate the link quality of an optical wireless link, such that the OWC interface is selected only when a high data rate OWC link can be established. By adjusting the threshold values, the selection between the two communication interfaces can be configured by a user of the peripheral apparatus.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the system 100. Instead of integrating an entire optical transceiver in the peripheral apparatus 200, it may also be an option that an optical front end (OFE) of the optical wireless communication interface is placed in the host electronic device 300. In this case, the first communication unit 210 is a baseband module of the optical wireless communication interface, and the optical front end (OFE) 212 of the optical wireless communication interface is integrated in the host electronic device 300 and communicatively connected to the first baseband module via another connection different from the data bus 250. The other connection is illustrated by the solid line connected between the OFE 212 and the first communication unit 210. Optionally, the OFE 212 may have a further connection with the signal detector 240 as shown with the dash line in FIG. 4.

The OFE 212 of the optical wireless communication interface comprises at least a light source and a light sensor, which implement the conversion between electrical signals and optical signals. In a transmitter chain, the OFE is used to convert an electrical transmitting signal to an output optical signal via the light source. In a receiver chain, the OFE is used to convert a received optical signal to an output electrical signal via the light sensor for further signal processing. A light source may be a Light-emitting diode (LED), a Laser diode (LD), a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), or an array of LED, LD, or VESEL. A light sensor can be a photodiode, an avalanche diode, or another type of light sensor. Sometimes a light sensor is also called as a photo detector, a light detector, or a photo sensor.

Since optical wireless communication or LiFi communication typically requires line-of-sight communication, the benefit of this setup is that by placing the OFE 212 in the host electronic device 300, the field of view of the OFE 212 may be optimized for communicating to an optical access point, which is typically deployed on the ceiling. In the meanwhile, it leaves more freedom in connecting the peripheral apparatus 200 to the host electronic device 300. For example, the peripheral apparatus 200 may be connected to an existing slot available in the host electronic device 300, such as inside of a laptop, without considering the line-of-sight requirement of the optical wireless communication.

As an example, a standard mini PCIE Wi-Fi card is used in the following description to illustrate the concept. A mini PCIE card is typically composed of a Wi-Fi module with one or two antennas output. This Wi-Fi card is commonly used in a host electronic device such as a laptop or a tablet and there is often one unique PCIE interface to enable the connection of such a daughter board. The Wi-Fi modules embedded in this daughter board are typically miniaturized, which provides some free space to add other electronics on the same daughter board.

According to the present invention, a customized mini PCIE card can be developed with both a Wi-Fi module and a OWC module. The OWC module may be a complete optical transceiver, such as a LiFi transceiver including both a baseband module and an optical front end (OFE). It may also be an option that the OWC module comprises a baseband module, such as a G.9991 baseband chip, but not the OFE. The OFE may be placed in the host electronic device and connected to the baseband module on the mini PCIE card via another connection different from the PCIE data bus. A fast switch may be added at the PCIE data interface to switch between the OWC interface and the RF interface. And one example may be to switch between a Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and a G.9991 connectivity. This switch is controlled upon detection of an optical signal. The optical signal may be an out-of- band optical signal detected by a dedicated signal detector, such as a low-cost optical signal level detector. The optical signal may also be an in-band optical signal detected by the OWC module used for data communication. The optical signal is sent by an OWC AP or a LiFi AP. Thus, detection of the optical signal indicates that the host electronic device or the customized mini PCIE card is in the coverage of the OWC or LiFi AP. When the optical signal is detected, the PCIE switch enables the OWC data path or the G.9991 data path; when no optical signal is detected, the PCIE switch enables the RF data path or the Wi-Fi 6 data path.

Therefore, as one option the customized PCIE card may comprise a RF transceiver and a baseband module for optical wireless communication (OWC), and an optical front end (OFE) is placed somewhere else in/on the host electronic device or end device, e.g., laptop, tablet, TV, home appliance, to enable a Line of Sight (LoS) connection with a OWC AP or a LiFi AP. Each time the host electronic device or end device is under the beam of a LiFi AP, the OFE receiver detects an optical power emitted by the LiFi AP. This received signal is then detected by a signal detector module that detects the level of signal received. The switch may switch on the OWC interface upon detection of received optical power. It may also be that the received signal may be compared to a threshold level. When the signal is strong enough (higher than the threshold signal), allowing a LiFi link with a good quality of communication, an OWC enable signal is transmitted to the switch. This OWC enable signal commutes the switch in the direction of the LiFi baseband chipset. This results in having the LiFi baseband signal directly connected to the PCIE interface of the device, and the Wi-Fi module is no more connected to the PCIE interface.

When the end device is no more in the line of sight of the LiFi AP, the signal detector module cannot detect a received optical signal above the predefined threshold level. As a result, the OWC enable signal goes down to zero. Then, the PCIE data bus is directly redirected to the Wi-Fi module.

An advantage of this invention is that only a single PCIE slot is required for integrating both an OWC interface and an RF interface to an end device. The system can automatically switch between the two interfaces depending on the detection of optical signal without user involvements.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A peripheral apparatus (200) comprising: a data bus (250) configured to connect to a host electronic device (300); a first communication unit (210) configured to carry out communication according to an optical wireless communication interface; a second communication unit (220) configured to carry out communication according to a radio frequency, RF, communication interface; and a switch (230) configured to switch between the first communication unit (210) and the second communication unit (220) for data communication on the data bus (250); wherein the switch (230) is configured to switch on the first communication unit (210) when an optical signal is detected by the peripheral apparatus (200); wherein the peripheral apparatus (200) is a network adapter configured to provide either the optical wireless communication interface or the RF communication interface to the host electronic device (300).

2. The peripheral apparatus (200) of claim 1, wherein the optical signal is detected by the first communication unit (210).

3. The peripheral apparatus (200) of claim 1 further comprising: a signal detector (240) configured to detect a presence of the optical signal.

4. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the first communication unit (210) is a first baseband module of the optical wireless communication interface, and the front end (212) of the optical wireless communication interface is integrated in the host electronic device (300) and communicatively connected to the first baseband module via another connection different from the data bus (250).

5. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims 1-4, wherein the data bus (250) is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCI Express, bus.

6. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims 1-4, wherein the data bus (250) is a mini Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCI Express, bus.

7. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims 1-4, wherein the data bus (250) is a mini Serial AT Attachment, mini SATA, bus.

8. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims 1-4, wherein the data bus (250) is a M.2 bus.

9. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the optical wireless communication interface is according to a Li-Fi communication protocol.

10. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the second communication unit (220) is placed on a daughter PCB board on or connected to the peripheral apparatus (200).

11. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the RF communication interface is according to an IEEE 802.11 based protocol.

12. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the switch (230) is configured to switch (230) on the first communication unit (210) when a signal strength of the optical signal is above a predefined threshold.

13. The peripheral apparatus (200) of any one of previous claims, wherein the host electronic device (300) is a computer, a laptop, a tablet, a remote controller, a smart TV, a display device, a speaker, a home appliance, or another smart electronic device.

14. A system (100) comprising: a host electronic device (300); and a peripheral apparatus (200) according to any one of previous claims 1-13; wherein the peripheral apparatus (200) is configured to provide the host electronic device (300) with either the optical wireless communication interface or the RF communication interface.