Communication devices using two wireless protocols
The communication device addresses interference in dual-protocol devices by implementing control configurations to limit BLE connection events and packet sizes, thereby reducing audio artifacts and enhancing audio quality.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN201880099525.1
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Patents(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2018-11-14
- Publication Date
- 2025-01-03
- Estimated Expiration
- 2038-11-14
AI Technical Summary
Communication devices using multiple wireless protocols face interference issues, particularly when they share overlapping frequency ranges, leading to audio artifacts, especially in hearing aids connected via Bluetooth and audio streaming devices.
A communication device with a wireless interface that applies a first control configuration when not engaged in audio data transfer and a second control configuration when engaged in audio data transfer, limiting BLE connection events and packet sizes to reduce interference and audio artifacts.
Throttling BLE traffic in the second control configuration effectively reduces audio artifacts, protecting fragile audio streams by ensuring BLE throughput is reduced to acceptable levels.
Smart Images
Figure CN113039826B_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present disclosure relates to a communication device having a wireless interface that can use two different wireless protocols. Background Art
[0002] A communication device using two different wireless communication protocols may face interference problems due to the coexistence of the two different protocols, particularly if the two protocols use overlapping frequency ranges and / or if the wireless interface comprises only a single transceiver.
[0003] US 2013 / 0064118 A1 relates to a method of minimizing interference between WLAN and Bluetooth in order to enhance network capacity in a network of devices using these protocols.
[0004] WO 2011 / 044056 A2 relates to a method for reducing interference between a WLAN interface and a Bluetooth interface based on measurements of physical parameters of the respective links, such as RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) or packet error rate.
[0005] US 2016 / 0249356 A1 relates to a mobile device that allows concurrent wireless transmission of control data via Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE") and proprietary audio streaming using the same physical layer of the radio, wherein the BLE control data has priority over proprietary audio requests. An enhanced link layer determines, based on slot information, whether a requested proprietary audio burst can be completed during the remaining duration of a current idle time period of the BLE connection.
[0006] Interference of a communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth protocol) with an audio streaming protocol may cause disturbing audio artifacts. This may occur, for example, when a hearing aid participating in audio streaming is simultaneously connected to an auxiliary device such as a mobile phone via a Bluetooth data connection. Summary of the invention
[0007] The object of the present disclosure is to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art and to provide an improved communication device with a wireless interface. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the present disclosure provides a communication device with a wireless interface, which can apply both the BLE protocol and a second protocol, the second protocol being suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data, wherein the interference between the two protocols is relatively low, in order to particularly avoid audio artifacts.
[0008] A further object is to provide a method of operating such a communication device.
[0009] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, these objects are achieved by a communication device as defined in claim 1 and a method as defined in claim 24, respectively.
[0010] In this communication device, the controller is configured to: apply a first control configuration when the transceiver unit is not used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via a second protocol; and apply a second control configuration when the transceiver unit is used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via a second protocol, wherein, in the second control configuration, the duration of a BLE connection event is limited to a maximum duration that is shorter than the maximum duration of a BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
[0011] Therefore, when the second protocol is used for audio data exchange, throttling of BLE traffic may be achieved, thereby reducing or eliminating audio artifacts caused by interference of BLE traffic.
[0012] The BLE throughput may be reduced to such an extent that audio artifacts caused by the BLE traffic are reduced to an acceptable level. Such BLE throttling is particularly useful for protecting "fragile" audio streams (e.g., audio streams that are particularly susceptible to audio artifacts caused by BLE traffic) from BLE audio artifacts.
[0013] According to some implementations, in the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit is limited to a maximum size that is smaller than the maximum size of BLE packets received in the first control configuration.
[0014] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, a number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event is limited to a number that is smaller than a maximum number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
[0015] Alternatively or additionally, in the second control configuration, a limitation on the size of a BLE packet or a limitation on the number of BLE packets within a BLE connection event may be applied to the BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit.
[0016] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received and sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event is limited by giving only the first N BLE packets of the first protocol of the BLE connection event a higher priority than audio packets of the second protocol, where N can be from 2 to 6.
[0017] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received and sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event is limited by synchronizing the first protocol and the second protocol during the BLE connection event, and establishing a coexistence window during which no more than one BLE packet is sent and no more than one BLE packet is received.
[0018] Some embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] Examples of the present disclosure are illustrated by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0020] Figure 1 A first example of a use case of a binaural hearing system with simultaneous audio data and BLE data traffic is shown;
[0021] Figure 2 Shows Figure 1 A second example of a use case of a binaural hearing system with simultaneous audio data and BLE data traffic;
[0022] Figure 3 Schematically shows Figure 1 and Figure 2 Examples of wireless interfaces for hearing systems;
[0023] Figure 4 Shows Figure 1 and Figure 2 An example of a use case of a binaural hearing system where no audio streaming occurs;
[0024] Figure 5 Shows Figure 4 An example of a usage of the system during the presence of binaural audio streaming;
[0025] Figure 6 Shows Figure 4 and Figure 5 An example of a use case of a system where there is a Figure 5 A more robust binaural audio stream; and
[0026] Figure 7 Schematically shows a similar Figures 1 to 6 An example of a timeline for data traffic in a system where a coexistence window is provided for BLE data exchanges.
[0027] The accompanying drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Similarly, for the purpose of discussing some embodiments in the embodiments of the present disclosure, some components and / or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block. In addition, although the present disclosure is acceptable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings and described in detail below. However, it is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the specific embodiments described. On the contrary, the present disclosure is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope of the present disclosure defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] The techniques described herein may be embodied as dedicated hardware (e.g., circuits), as programmable circuits that are appropriately programmed using software and / or firmware, or as a combination of dedicated circuits and programmable circuits. Thus, embodiments may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that can be used to program a computer (or other electronic device) to perform a process. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an optical disc, a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a magneto-optical disc, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a magnetic or optical card, a flash memory, or other types of media / machine-readable media suitable for storing electronic instructions. In some implementations, the machine-readable medium is a non-temporary computer-readable medium, wherein the non-temporary medium does not include a propagation signal.
[0029] As used below, an "audio stream" may include only audio data, or the audio data of an audio stream may be part of a media stream including audio data and video data, for example, the audio stream may also include video data. Typically, an audio stream is sent from an audio source to multiple audio sinks via broadcasting, for example, the audio source acts as a broadcasting device that unidirectionally sends information to a receiver device, wherein the receiver device cannot provide feedback to the broadcasting device as to whether the information is received, for example, there is no uplink.
[0030] A "communication device" is an electronic device having a wireless interface for communicating with other electronic devices. In particular, a communication device may be any type of head-mounted hearing device, including any type of hearing aid or hearing assistance device, hearing prosthesis, earpiece, headset, earphone, earplug, headset; such a device may be usable by a hearing-impaired person or a person with normal hearing.
[0031] The term "connection event" as used herein is defined in Section 4.5.1 of the Bluetooth 5.0 specification. A connection event is a phase beginning at the beginning of each connection interval during which packets are exchanged between a BLE master device and a BLE slave device. The duration of a connection event may vary, depending on the amount of packets exchanged.
[0032] Figure 1 An example of a first use case of a binaural hearing system 10 is shown, which includes a first hearing aid 12 to be worn at one ear of a user and a second hearing aid 14 to be worn at the other ear of the user. Each hearing aid 12, 14 can communicate with an auxiliary device 16 having a BLE interface via a BLE data link 18. Each hearing aid 12, 14 can simultaneously receive audio data from an audio source 20 or exchange audio data with the audio source 20 via an audio link 22. To this end, as shown in FIG. Figure 3 As schematically shown in FIG. 1 , a hearing aid 12, 14 having a wireless interface 24 is provided, the wireless interface 24 comprising a transceiver unit 26 and a controller 28. The controller 28 is configured to control the transceiver unit 26 when applying a first protocol, which is the BLE protocol, and a second protocol, which is suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data.
[0033] According to some implementations, the second protocol may be a proprietary audio streaming protocol, a standard Bluetooth A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) protocol, or a standard Bluetooth HFP (Hands-Free Profile) protocol.
[0034] In some implementations, the audio source device 20 may be a telephone device, an audio streaming device, a tablet computer, a notebook, or an ear-worn hearing aid.
[0035] In some implementations, auxiliary device 16 may be a smart phone or a remote control.
[0036] exist Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 4 , the auxiliary device is a smart phone and the audio source device 20 is a tablet computer using Bluetooth A2DP for stereo audio streaming.
[0037] Figure 2 Another example of the use of the binaural hearing system 10 is shown in FIG. Figure 1 The same, but each of the hearing aids 12 , 14 acts as an audio source device for the other of the hearing aids 12 , 14 , so that in this case the audio data exchange is represented by a low-latency binaural audio stream 22 .
[0038] It should be understood that the principles disclosed herein with respect to the hearing system 10 are generally applicable to any type of communication device; each hearing aid 12 , 14 is merely an example of a communication device to be used with the disclosure of this application.
[0039] In some implementations, the communication device may be a wearable device. In some implementations, the communication device may be a hearing aid to be worn at ear level, or it may be an earpiece. In some implementations, the communication device may be any kind of hearing assistive device or hearing prosthesis.
[0040] In some implementations, the communication device may be configured to assume the role of a BLE peripheral device when applying the first protocol.
[0041] The controller 28 is configured to apply a first control configuration when the transceiver 26 is not used for receiving audio data and / or transmitting audio data via the second protocol; and to apply a second control configuration when the transceiver 26 is used for receiving audio data and / or transmitting audio data via the second protocol. In the second control configuration, the duration of the BLE connection event is limited to a maximum duration that is shorter than the maximum duration of the BLE connection event in the first control configuration. Thus, the BLE traffic can be efficiently throttled in the presence of audio streaming so as to reduce audio artifacts caused by the BLE traffic.
[0042] In some implementations, transceiver unit 26 is formed of a single transceiver. In other implementations, transceiver unit 26 may include multiple transceivers. The selective BLE throttling described herein is particularly suitable for use with a single transceiver.
[0043] Figures 4 to 6 An example of a practical application of such selective BLE throttling is shown in FIG. Figure 4 An example is shown in which there is no binaural audio streaming via the audio link 22 between the hearing aids 12 and 14; instead, there is only an idle binaural connection via the link 22. Also, there are no other links for audio streaming. Therefore, the transceivers 26 of the hearing aids 12, 14 are controlled by the controller 28 in a manner that applies a first control configuration, so that there is no throttling of the BLE link 18 between the auxiliary device 16 and the hearing aids 12, 14.
[0044] exist Figure 5In the example of FIG. 1 , there is a binaural audio stream via link 22 between the hearing aids 12 and 14, which is considered to be “fragile” because it is susceptible to audio artifacts caused by BLE traffic. Therefore, the controller 28 applies a second control configuration in which the BLE data traffic via link 18 is throttled by limiting the maximum duration of the BLE connection event in order to protect the binaural audio stream 22 (at least to some extent) from audio artifacts caused by the BLE data traffic.
[0045] exist Figure 6 In the example of FIG. 1 , there is no active audio stream between the hearing aids 12 and 14 via the binaural link 22 (eg, Figure 4 ); however, there is another audio source device 30 connected to each of the hearing aids 12, 14 via a wireless audio link 32 in order to establish an audio stream from the audio source device 30 to the hearing aids 12, 14. The wireless audio link 32 uses a different protocol from the protocol used in the binaural link 22. However, unlike the binaural audio stream via link 22, the audio stream via link 32 is considered to be a robust audio stream because it is not susceptible to audio artifacts caused by BLE data traffic. Therefore, in this case, the controller 28 controls the transceiver 26 by applying a first control configuration, in which there is no BLE throttling.
[0046] Therefore, if Figure 6 In the example of , the controller 28 can be configured to: also control the transceiver 26 by applying a third protocol (which is the protocol used by the link 32), wherein the third protocol is suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data when the second protocol (which is used by the link 22) is not applied, wherein the first control configuration is applied when the first protocol (which is the BLE protocol) and the third protocol (but not the second protocol) are applied simultaneously.
[0047] In practice, there are several options for achieving the desired BLE throttling.
[0048] For example, in some implementations, in the second control configuration, the size of the BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit can be limited to a maximum size that is smaller than the maximum size of the BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit in the first control configuration. For example, in the second control configuration, the size of the BLE packets received by the transceiver unit can be limited via sending an LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol) control message to a peer device (e.g., auxiliary device 16), the LLCP control message specifying the maximum size of the packets sent by the peer device. Moreover, in the second control configuration, the size of the BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit can be limited; in this case, the peer device can be notified of the limitation via sending an LLCP control message to the peer device, the LLCP control message specifying the maximum size of the packets sent to the peer device. For example, in the second control configuration, the size of the BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit can be limited to a maximum size of 27 bytes.
[0049] Alternatively or in addition to limiting the size of BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit, in some implementations, the number of BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event can be limited to a number that is smaller than the maximum number of BLE packets received and / or sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
[0050] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, even if the "More Data Bit" ("MD") of the last BLE packet received by the transceiver unit has a value of 1, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event can be limited by not listening for further messages that exceed the maximum number of BLE packets.
[0051] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event may be limited via setting the value of the MD bit to zero, even if more data is waiting to be sent.
[0052] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event is limited to one packet, and / or in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event is limited to one packet. In this case, in the second control configuration, at most one reception attempt and at most one transmission attempt are allowed during each BLE connection event.
[0053] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event and the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver within a BLE connection event are limited by giving only the first N BLE packets of the BLE connection event a higher priority than audio packets of the second protocol, where N is from 2 to 6 (in contrast, in the first control configuration, BLE packets can always have a higher priority than packets of the second protocol). For example, N can be limited to two.
[0054] In some implementations, in the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event and the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within the BLE connection event are limited by synchronizing the first protocol and the second protocol during the BLE connection event, and establishing a coexistence window during which no more than one BLE packet is sent and no more than one BLE packet is received. Figure 7 An example of such an implementation is shown in , where for a frame length of 2.5 ms, such a coexistence window is repeated with a periodicity of 7.5 ms, such that in every third frame there is a coexistence window that allows traffic of two BLE packets in the last two slots of six slots of a frame. For example, the timing of a second protocol (which may be a binaural protocol) may be controlled by a master device of that protocol, which in turn may be a slave device making a BLE connection to a secondary device (e.g., a mobile phone). The master device of the second protocol may then schedule audio transmissions via the second protocol so that they are time aligned / synchronized with the BLE periodic data traffic.
[0055] The phrases "in some implementations," "according to some implementations," "in illustrated implementations," "in other implementations" generally mean that the particular feature, structure, or characteristic following the phrase is included in at least one implementation of the present disclosure, and may be included in more than one implementation. Additionally, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or different implementations.
[0056] The above detailed description of the example of the present disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise form disclosed above. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant art, although the specific example of the present disclosure is described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, when a process or block is presented in a given order, alternative implementations can perform routines with steps in different orders or adopt systems with blocks, and some processes or blocks can be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined and / or modified to provide alternatives or sub-combinations. Each of these processes or blocks can be implemented in various different ways. Moreover, although a process or block is sometimes shown as being executed in series, these processes or blocks can be alternatively executed or implemented in parallel, or can be executed at different times. In addition, any specific numbers indicated herein are only examples: alternative implementations can adopt different values or scopes.
Claims
1. A communication device, comprising: A wireless interface (24), comprising: a transceiver unit (26), and a controller (28) configured to: control the transceiver unit when applying a first protocol and a second protocol, the first protocol being a Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE") protocol, the second protocol being suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data; Wherein, the controller is further configured as follows: applying a first control configuration when the transceiver unit is not used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via the second protocol, and applying a second control configuration when the transceiver unit is used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via the second protocol, Wherein, in the second control configuration, the duration of the BLE connection event is limited to a maximum duration that is shorter than the maximum duration of the BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein: In the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) is limited to a maximum size that is smaller than the maximum size of BLE packets received in the first control configuration.
3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein: In the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) is limited via sending an LLCP control message specifying a maximum size of received packets.
4. The communication device according to any one of claims 2 and 3, wherein: In the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) is limited to a maximum size of 27 bytes.
5. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: In the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets transmitted by the transceiver unit (26) is limited to a maximum size that is smaller than the maximum size of BLE packets transmitted in the first control configuration.
6. The communication device according to claim 5, wherein: A secondary device acting as a peer device is informed of the limitation via the sending of an LLCP control message by the transceiver unit (26), the LLCP control message specifying a maximum size of packets sent.
7. The communication device according to claim 5, wherein: In the second control configuration, the size of BLE packets transmitted by the transceiver unit (26) is limited to a maximum size of 27 bytes.
8. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited to a number that is smaller than a maximum number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
9. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited by not listening for further messages exceeding the maximum number of received BLE packets, even if the "More Data Bit" ("MD") of the last BLE packet received by the transceiver unit has a value of 1.
10. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited to one packet.
11. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited to a maximum number that is smaller than the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
12. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets transmitted by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited by setting the value of the MD bit to zero, even if more data is waiting to be transmitted.
13. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event is limited to one packet.
14. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event and the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event are limited by giving only the first N BLE packets of the first protocol of the BLE connection event a higher priority than audio packets of the second protocol, where N is from 2 to 6.
15. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein: In the second control configuration, the number of BLE packets received by the transceiver unit (26) within a BLE connection event and the number of BLE packets sent by the transceiver unit within a BLE connection event are limited by synchronizing the first protocol and the second protocol during a BLE connection event and establishing a coexistence window during which no more than one BLE packet is sent and no more than one BLE packet is received.
16. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The controller is configured to: control the transceiver unit also when applying the first protocol and a third protocol, wherein the third protocol is suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data when the transceiver unit does not apply audio data exchange via the second protocol, and wherein the controller is further configured to: apply the first control configuration when the transceiver unit is not used for receiving and / or sending audio data via the second protocol but is used for receiving and / or sending audio data via the third protocol.
17. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The second protocol is a proprietary audio streaming protocol, a standard Bluetooth A2DP protocol, or a standard Bluetooth HFP protocol.
18. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The communication device is a wearable device.
19. The communication device according to claim 18, wherein: The communication device is a hearing aid or a headset to be worn at ear level.
20. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The communication device is configured to assume the role of a BLE peripheral device when applying the first protocol.
21. A system comprising: A communication device according to any one of the preceding claims, an auxiliary device (16) having a BLE interface for connecting to the communication device via the first protocol, and an audio source device having an interface for connecting to the communication device via the second protocol.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein: The auxiliary device (16) is a smart phone or a remote control.
23. The system according to any one of claims 21 and 22, wherein: The audio source device (30) is a telephone device, an audio streaming device, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or an ear-worn hearing aid.
24. A method of operating a communication device, the communication device comprising a wireless interface (24), the wireless interface (24) comprising a transceiver unit (26) and a controller (28), the method comprising: When applying a first protocol and a second protocol, the transceiver unit is controlled by the controller by the following operations, wherein the first protocol is a Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE") protocol and the second protocol is suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data: applying a first control configuration when the transceiver unit is not used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via the second protocol, and applying a second control configuration when the transceiver unit is used for audio data reception and / or audio data transmission via the second protocol, Wherein, in the second control configuration, the duration of the BLE connection event is limited to a maximum duration that is shorter than the maximum duration of the BLE connection event in the first control configuration.
25. A non-transitory computer readable medium coupled to a processor, wherein: The method of claim 24 is performed when the processor executes instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium.