A method and device for simulating a Bluetooth baseband

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and device for simulating a Bluetooth baseband, the method comprising: simulating an application program as a Bluetooth device and simulating a shared memory as an air environment; controlling the application program to write first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet; controlling the shared memory to write the first data into a packet capture tool software to simulate packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband. The embodiment of the present invention can improve the simulation effect of the Bluetooth baseband.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of software simulation, and in particular to a simulation method and device for a Bluetooth baseband. Background Art

[0002] The emergence of Bluetooth BLE Audio (i.e. Bluetooth Low Energy Audio) will quickly occupy the mobile phone and headset market, but the realization of BLE Audio is extremely challenging. Because BLE Audio is a brand-new architecture, in order to realize BLE Audio, in addition to modifying the software code, the hardware part also needs to be modified. For example, the digital baseband can also be regarded as program code, but R&D and debugging are quite troublesome. At the same time, the software and baseband also need to be finely divided and closely coordinated, and repeated attempts and debugging are required. This is an arduous iterative process. If the existing R&D method is adopted, it will require huge investment of manpower, financial resources and time.

[0003] Today, the influence of software simulation development is growing, mainly because this type of technology can speed up R&D, save debugging and verification time, and save the high cost of purchasing and renting R&D equipment. So we can think of using computer software to simulate the soft baseband, and then run the upper layer protocol. When the development is relatively mature, the soft baseband will be transplanted to a real chip or a closer real simulation system (such as FPGA, Field Programmable Gate Array). But in reality, the accuracy of BLE Audio's receiving and transmitting clock is close to microseconds, while the accuracy of Windows thread scheduling in general office computers is above milliseconds. Running simulation may require supercomputers and special operating systems. In addition, since the existing Bluetooth soft baseband cannot emit real radio waves, it is difficult to achieve the packet capture analysis achieved by the real baseband.

[0004] In summary, the simulation effect of the existing Bluetooth soft baseband is not good, and it is difficult to implement BLE Audio based on the existing Bluetooth soft baseband. Summary of the invention

[0005] The embodiment of the present invention provides a method and device for simulating a Bluetooth baseband, which improves the simulation effect of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0006] A first aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a Bluetooth baseband simulation method, comprising:

[0007] Simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and the shared memory as an air environment;

[0008] Controlling the application to write the first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet;

[0009] The shared memory is controlled to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of the packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0010] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

[0011] The control application reads the first data in the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device receiving the air data packet.

[0012] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer;

[0013] When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to the first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to the second buffer block to be written;

[0014] When the first data is written into the end buffer block to be written, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

[0015] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and real data packet.

[0016] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: implementing simulation of receiving / sending air data packets between Bluetooth devices, specifically:

[0017] The Bluetooth device includes a first device and a second device;

[0018] Obtaining a first sending time point according to the sending and receiving time;

[0019] Controlling the first device to send an air data packet at a second sending time point; wherein the second sending time point is later than the first sending time point;

[0020] Controlling the second device to start at the first sending time point and wait for receiving the air data packet within the receiving time period; wherein the receiving time period is greater than the time width;

[0021] When the second device receives the air data packet, the simulation of sending and receiving air data packets between Bluetooth devices is completed.

[0022] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, simulating the application as a Bluetooth device is specifically as follows:

[0023] Simulate multiple different applications into multiple different Bluetooth devices;

[0024] Or you can simulate different running instances of the same application into multiple different Bluetooth devices.

[0025] A second aspect of the embodiment of the present application provides a Bluetooth baseband simulation device, including: a first simulation module, a second simulation module and a third simulation module;

[0026] The first simulation module is used to simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and simulate the shared memory as an air environment;

[0027] The second simulation module is used to control the application to write the first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet;

[0028] The third simulation module is used to control the shared memory to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0029] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the second simulation module is further used to control the application to read the first data in the shared memory, so as to simulate the Bluetooth device receiving an air data packet.

[0030] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer;

[0031] When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to the first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to the second buffer block to be written;

[0032] When the first data is written into the end buffer block to be written, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

[0033] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and real data packet.

[0034] Compared with the prior art, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method and device for simulating a Bluetooth baseband, the method comprising: simulating an application as a Bluetooth device and simulating a shared memory as an air environment; controlling the application to write first data in the shared memory to realize the simulation of the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet; controlling the shared memory to write the first data into a packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0035] The beneficial effect is that the Bluetooth baseband simulation method and device provided in the embodiment of the present invention can simulate the Bluetooth device sending air data packets and simulate the process of packet capture and analysis after simulating the application as a Bluetooth device and simulating the shared memory as an air environment, thereby overcoming the difficulty that the soft baseband in the prior art cannot send real radio waves and cannot perform packet capture and analysis, so the embodiment of the present invention improves the simulation effect of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0036] In addition, the simulated Bluetooth baseband in the embodiment of the present invention only needs an application and shared memory to be realized, so it can be run and debugged normally in an office computer (i.e., an ordinary personal computer equipped with a Windows system), thereby saving R&D time and cost, reducing R&D difficulty and improving R&D quality. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] Figure 1 It is a flowchart of a Bluetooth baseband simulation method provided by one embodiment of the present invention;

[0038] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the working mode of a virtual Bluetooth device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0039] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the interaction process between the controller code and the simulation baseband provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0040] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the format of an air data packet provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0041] Figure 5 The present invention is a schematic diagram of a Bluetooth baseband simulation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0043] Reference Figure 1 , is a flowchart of a Bluetooth baseband simulation method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, including S101-S103:

[0044] S101: Simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and simulate the shared memory as an air environment.

[0045] S102: Control the application program to write first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet.

[0046] In this embodiment, the method further includes: controlling the application to read the first data in the shared memory to implement simulation of the Bluetooth device receiving an air data packet.

[0047] In a specific embodiment, the shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer;

[0048] When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to a first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to a second buffer block to be written;

[0049] When the end buffer block to be written is written into the first data, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

[0050] Among them, the buffer block to be written at the head end is the first buffer block of the circular buffer; the buffer block to be written at the end end is the last buffer block of the circular buffer; the first buffer block to be written is any buffer block to be written in the circular buffer, and the second buffer block to be written is the next buffer block to be written after the first buffer block to be written.

[0051] Specifically, different Bluetooth devices are provided with different read pointers to ensure that each Bluetooth device can read the air data packets sent by any other Bluetooth device and can ignore the packets sent by itself.

[0052] In this embodiment, it also includes: implementing the simulation of receiving / sending the air data packet between the Bluetooth devices, specifically:

[0053] The Bluetooth device includes a first device and a second device;

[0054] Obtaining a first sending time point according to the sending and receiving time;

[0055] Controlling the first device to send the air data packet at a second sending time point; wherein the second sending time point is later than the first sending time point;

[0056] Controlling the second device to start at the first sending time point and wait for receiving the air data packet within a receiving time period; wherein the receiving time period is greater than the time width;

[0057] When the second device receives the air data packet, the simulation of receiving / sending the air data packet between the Bluetooth devices is completed.

[0058] Specifically, the receiving / sending of air data packets between Bluetooth devices is completed through virtual radio frequency, and the receiving and sending of virtual radio frequency are completed by a thread. When the thread waits until the marked receiving / sending time point, such as the first sending time point mentioned above, it will perform sending or receiving. Due to the limitations of the performance of office computers and the Windows operating system, it is not possible to achieve very precise waiting. Therefore, usually, several milliseconds are delayed after the marked receiving / sending time point before performing sending or receiving. However, the waiting accuracy is far from the microsecond-level index, and this delay is not fixed. For example, sometimes it is delayed by 1.3 ms, and sometimes it is delayed by 2.5 ms. Therefore, the receiving and sending asynchrony is not linear. However, when a large number of receiving and sending operations are performed, the overall delay is relatively stable, such as being stable at about 2 milliseconds and will not accumulate to infinity.

[0059] Among them, the receiving / sending sequence of Bluetooth devices is set by the frame arrangement algorithm of the controller code. In this embodiment, the receiving / sending sequences of the first device and the second device are the same, only the receiving / sending directions are opposite. Then the process of receiving / sending air data packets between the first device and the second device is as follows:

[0060] According to the receiving / sending time, the marked sending time point and the marked receiving time point are obtained, where the marked sending time point and the marked receiving time point are the same.

[0061] The receiving / sending thread of the first device is ready to send. The time T1a when the simulation baseband executes the sending lags behind the marked sending time point T1, that is, T1a > T1. After sending, the second device is ready to receive. Its marked receiving time point is also T1, but the time T1b when the simulation baseband starts to execute the receiving also lags behind T1, but it may be earlier than T1a (T1b < T1a) or later than T1a (T1b > T1a). Thus, the following situations occur:

[0062] 1. Assume T1b > T1a, that is, when the second device starts to receive, the first device has already sent, and the air data packet sent by the first device has been cached in the shared memory. Therefore, the second device will definitely receive it.

[0063] 2. Assume T1b < T1a, that is, when the second device starts to receive, the first device has not yet sent. Therefore, the second device should have a receiving window TW (that is, the above-mentioned receiving time period). Among them, according to the clock accuracy of the operating system, this TW is usually also in milliseconds and is greater than the marked time width.

[0064] 3. For ease of processing, no matter T1b is greater than or less than T1a, the start time for the second device to wait for receiving the air data packet should be T1, until T1+TW or the packet is received, to ensure that the second device can normally receive the air data packet of the first device corresponding to the time window.

[0065] If the simulated baseband needs to extend the transmit and receive sequence, the frame arrangement time is still the transmit and receive time in the real air.

[0066] In a specific embodiment, simulating the application as a Bluetooth device is specifically as follows:

[0067] Simulating a plurality of different applications into a plurality of different Bluetooth devices;

[0068] Alternatively, different running instances in the same application program may be simulated into a plurality of different Bluetooth devices.

[0069] S103: Control the shared memory to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0070] In a specific embodiment, the manager of the shared memory writes the first data to the interface of the packet capture tool software, or records it as a file that can be parsed by it, so as to assist in analysis.

[0071] To further explain how the virtual Bluetooth device works after emulating the Bluetooth baseband, please refer to Figure 2 , Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the working mode of a virtual Bluetooth device provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

[0072] Depend on Figure 2 It can be seen that, in the process of emulating the Bluetooth baseband, the application is simulated as a Bluetooth device and the shared memory is simulated as an air environment. Therefore, the application is a virtual Bluetooth device and the shared memory is a virtual air environment (i.e., virtual air). Each Bluetooth device is simulated by an application. Different virtual Bluetooth devices can be different applications or different running instances of the same application. Virtual Bluetooth devices use shared memory to simulate air communication.

[0073] Different virtual Bluetooth devices write data to the shared memory, that is, transmit air packets; or read data from the shared memory, that is, receive air packets. The shared memory manager also writes this "air packet" to the software interface of the packet capture tool, or records it as a file that can be parsed, to assist in analysis.

[0074] To further illustrate the interaction between the controller code and the soft baseband (i.e., emulated baseband) through the driver unified interface (DUI), please refer to Figure 3 , Figure 3The figure is a schematic diagram of the interaction process between the controller code and the simulated baseband provided by an embodiment of the present invention. PBB is the abbreviation of Physical baseband, i.e., physical baseband; SBB is the abbreviation of Soft baseband, i.e., soft baseband; PAS is a protocol analysis software, and HCI snoop refers to packet capture from the HCI layer.

[0075] Depend on Figure 3 It can be obtained that the controller code interacts with the soft baseband (i.e., the simulated baseband) through the driver unified interface (DUI). In the iterative process of research and development, the division of labor, specific interfaces, and interaction processes between the baseband and the controller were gradually implemented to realize the overall architecture and prototype.

[0076] The operation logic of the physical baseband is also implemented and verified in the soft baseband in advance, and then transplanted to the chip and further modified. Other layers (such as the controller) are relatively simple to transplant because they are software codes. Due to the use of a unified driver interface, other physical basebands can also be encapsulated with a layer of driver code and replaced with the developed baseband for comparative verification.

[0077] Since this type of nonlinear time-shift system seems to violate the principle of causal systems (i.e., time asynchrony seems to affect the present as the future affects the present), it is very difficult to understand and thus affects implementation. In order to solve this problem, the method of "arranging the soft baseband receiving and sending threads on a specific CPU (i.e., central processing unit) core and using an infinite loop code to delay to the marked time" was initially adopted, and its feasibility has been proven in practice. Because the CPU core will not be preempted when it is not running other tasks, the actual delay of each loop is very small (less than 1 microsecond) and very stable.

[0078] Therefore, the infinite loop can be used as a substitute solution for the "virtual transmission and reception of virtual Bluetooth devices according to the marking time" provided by the embodiment of the present invention. However, the disadvantages of this substitute method are: when a large number of Bluetooth devices are running at the same time, a large number of CPU cores are required, which is difficult for ordinary office computers to meet; secondly, the infinite loop keeps the CPU in a busy state, which consumes a lot of power, causing the CPU to heat up severely and has the risk of burning out.

[0079] For further explanation of the format of the air data packet, please refer to Figure 4 , Figure 4 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the format of an air data packet provided by an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 It can be seen that, in a specific embodiment, the air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and original air packet (ie, real data packet).

[0080] Specifically, since the air data packet is a simulated data packet, it is a simulation realized by simply encapsulating the real data packet, so the air data packet includes the real data packet. At the same time, during the encapsulation process, some fields in the real data packet can be ignored according to actual needs, such as the preamble, which can be simply calculated from the access address and plays a role in improving the stability of transmission and reception in the real air, but is not required in the simulated baseband.

[0081] In addition, in order to adapt to running on office computers, a time stamp (i.e., the time of sending and receiving) needs to be added to each air data packet to solve the delay problem. Therefore, the simulated baseband does not need to perform virtual sending and receiving within the time limit of microsecond accuracy. On this basis, the transmitter marks the real time of its transmission in the real air, and then it can still be delayed by more than milliseconds before writing to the shared memory; and when the receiver receives this packet, it only needs to determine whether its marked time is within the marked time slot. The above are the characteristics of the Bluetooth protocol. Both parties need to agree on the time window, as well as the same channel, access address, physical transmission rate and other conditions to communicate normally.

[0082] Therefore, the original air packet (i.e., the real data packet) needs to be supplemented with channel, access address, physical transmission rate and other field information to form a virtual air packet.

[0083] For further explanation of the Bluetooth baseband emulation device, please refer to Figure 5 , Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a Bluetooth baseband simulation device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, comprising: a first simulation module 501, a second simulation module 502 and a third simulation module 503.

[0084] The first simulation module 501 is used to simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and simulate the shared memory as an air environment.

[0085] The second simulation module 502 is used to control the application to write the first data into the shared memory, so as to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet.

[0086] In this embodiment, the second simulation module is further used to control the application to read the first data in the shared memory, so as to realize the simulation of the Bluetooth device receiving an air data packet.

[0087] The third simulation module 503 is used to control the shared memory to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0088] In a specific embodiment, the shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer;

[0089] When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to a first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to a second buffer block to be written;

[0090] When the end buffer block to be written is written into the first data, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

[0091] In a specific embodiment, the air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and real data packet.

[0092] The embodiment of the present invention first simulates the application into a Bluetooth device and the shared memory into an air environment through the first simulation module 501; then controls the application to write the first data into the shared memory through the second simulation module 502 to realize the simulation of the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet; finally, controls the shared memory to write the first data into the packet capture tool software through the third simulation module 503 to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0093] The Bluetooth baseband simulation method and device provided in the embodiment of the present invention can simulate the Bluetooth device sending air data packets and simulate the process of packet capture and analysis after simulating the application as a Bluetooth device and simulating the shared memory as an air environment, thereby overcoming the difficulty that the soft baseband in the prior art cannot send real radio waves and cannot perform packet capture and analysis. Therefore, the embodiment of the present invention improves the simulation effect of the Bluetooth baseband.

[0094] In addition, the simulated Bluetooth baseband in the embodiment of the present invention only needs an application and shared memory to be realized, so it can be run and debugged normally in an office computer (i.e., an ordinary personal computer equipped with a Windows system), thereby saving R&D time and cost, reducing R&D difficulty and improving R&D quality.

[0095] The above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It should be pointed out that a person skilled in the art can make several improvements and modifications without departing from the principle of the present invention. These improvements and modifications are also considered to be within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for simulating a Bluetooth baseband, characterized in that: include: Simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and the shared memory as an air environment; Controlling the application to write first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet; The shared memory is controlled to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

2. A Bluetooth baseband simulation method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes: The application is controlled to read the first data in the shared memory to implement simulation of the Bluetooth device receiving an air data packet.

3. A Bluetooth baseband simulation method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer; When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to a first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to a second buffer block to be written; When the end buffer block to be written is written into the first data, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

4. A Bluetooth baseband simulation method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and real data packet.

5. A method for simulating a Bluetooth baseband according to claim 4, characterized in that: Also includes: The simulation of receiving / sending the air data packets between the Bluetooth devices is realized, specifically: The Bluetooth device includes a first device and a second device; Obtaining a first sending time point according to the sending and receiving time; Controlling the first device to send the air data packet at a second sending time point; wherein the second sending time point is later than the first sending time point; Controlling the second device to start at the first sending time point and wait for receiving the air data packet within a receiving time period; wherein the receiving time period is greater than the time width; When the second device receives the air data packet, the simulation of receiving / sending the air data packet between the Bluetooth devices is completed.

6. A Bluetooth baseband simulation method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The simulation of the application as a Bluetooth device is specifically as follows: Simulating a plurality of different applications into a plurality of different Bluetooth devices; Alternatively, different running instances in the same application program may be simulated into a plurality of different Bluetooth devices.

7. A Bluetooth baseband simulation device, characterized in that: include: A first simulation module, a second simulation module and a third simulation module; Wherein, the first simulation module is used to simulate the application as a Bluetooth device and simulate the shared memory as an air environment; The second simulation module is used to control the application to write the first data into the shared memory to simulate the Bluetooth device transmitting an air data packet; The third simulation module is used to control the shared memory to write the first data into the packet capture tool software to realize the simulation of packet capture analysis and complete the simulation of the Bluetooth baseband.

8. A Bluetooth baseband simulation device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The second simulation module is also used to control the application to read the first data in the shared memory, so as to realize the simulation of the Bluetooth device receiving the air data packet.

9. A Bluetooth baseband simulation device according to claim 8, characterized in that: The shared memory is a ring buffer in a dynamic link library, and the dynamic link library shares a write pointer; When writing the first data in the shared memory, controlling the write pointer to point to a first buffer block to be written in the shared memory, so as to write the first data into the first buffer block to be written, and controlling the write pointer to point to a second buffer block to be written; When the end buffer block to be written is written into the first data, the write pointer is controlled to point to the head buffer block to be written; wherein the first buffer block to be written, the second buffer block to be written, the head buffer block to be written and the end buffer block to be written are all located in the ring buffer.

10. A Bluetooth baseband simulation device according to claim 9, characterized in that: The air data packet includes: sending and receiving time, time width, channel, physical transmission rate and real data packet.

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