Programmable radio

Abstract

A programmable radio communication system comprises a transmitter 1 and a receiver 2. The transmitter comprises radio transmitting means 5 and processing means 3. The processing means is configured to: execute transmitter firmware 6; execute a transmitter software application 4; and operate an interface between the transmitter firmware and the transmitter software application, wherein the interface supports one or more operators, each operator acting on one or more elements, wherein the transmitter firmware comprises instructions for: receiving across the interface from the transmitter software application, an operator and an element, associated with a virtual pipe between the transmitter software application and a respective receiver software application; encoding the operator and the element; and using the radio transmitting means to transmit the encoded operator and element by radio, and wherein the receiver comprises radio receiving means 10 and processing means 8, the processing means being configured to: execute receiver firmware 11; execute a receiver software application 9; and operate an interface between the receiver firmware and the receiver software application, wherein the receiver firmware comprises instructions for: using the radio receiving means to receive the encoded operator and element; decoding the operator and element; and sending the operator and the element across the interface to the receiver software application, thereby creating the virtual pipe between the transmitter software application and the receiver software application. One embodiment relates to a thermometer probe providing temperature readings to a weather station using GET or SET operators to e.g. set the current temperature element for that thermometer probe at the weather station. One advantage of the arrangement is to take away from the software applications concerns of packet construction / deconstruction which is instead handled by firmware in the transmitter / receiver and providing one or more pipes, for the interface between the application and firmware, associated with particular operators and / or elements.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a programmable radio communication system. Background technique [0002] Radio transmitters and receivers that can be controlled with software are known. For example, known single-chip integrated radio transceivers can be connected to an external microcontroller (MCU) and controlled by a software application running on the microcontroller. System-on-chip devices having both a radio transceiver and a microcontroller on one chip are also known. [0003] For example, in a wireless temperature probe, a software application may periodically read the readings of the temperature sensor in the probe; determine if the reading is different from the previous reading; and if so, encode the new reading into a data packets; and, sending the data packets to a radio transmitter in the probe (eg, via a serial connection) for transmission to a remote base unit. [0004] A known problem with radios is that software applications must co...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] A known problem with radio devices is that the software application must construct the packet

If extreme care is not taken, incompatibilities between the software application at the sending end and the software application at the receiving end are likely to result from errors by the application software developer

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