Wi-fi / bluetooth antenna disconnect detection

Abstract

To detect antenna / cable disconnection on co-located communication devices.SOLUTION: The embodiments described herein are directed at techniques to perform antenna / cable disconnection using co-located communication devices. A first device may transmit a reference signal over a predetermined bandwidth. A parasitic signal corresponding to the reference signal may be received via coupling at a second device that is co-located with the first device. The second device may be coupled to a first end of a cable via a port, with the second end of the cable configured to connect to an antenna. A processing device may determine a ratio of amplitudes of the parasitic signal over a predefined bandwidth. The processing device may then determine, based on the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predefined bandwidth, a disconnect status of one or more of the antenna and the cable.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to co-located communication devices each using any of a variety of communication protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi™ and Bluetooth™), and more particularly to detecting antenna / cable disconnection on co-located communication devices. [Background technology]

[0002] Various communication devices may include transceivers configured to transmit / receive data using any of a variety of communication protocols. For example, the transceiver may transmit / receive signals using a Wi-Fi protocol, a Bluetooth protocol, or a WiMAX protocol, among others. In some cases, multiple transceivers may be implemented in a single multi-protocol combined device. For example, a single device may include a Bluetooth (BT) transceiver and a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver (e.g., operating under the Wi-Fi protocol), which may utilize their own transmission hardware, such as antennas, cables, etc.

[0003] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 2A] 2 is a block diagram illustrating the wireless communication device of FIG. 1 in a specific antenna / cable disconnection scenario, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2B] 2 is a block diagram illustrating the wireless communication device of FIG. 1 in a specific antenna / cable disconnection scenario, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2C]1 in a specific antenna / cable disconnection scenario, according to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] 2A-2C illustrate the amplitude of the parasitic reference signal over a predetermined bandwidth for each of the antenna / cable disconnect scenarios shown in FIGS. 2A-2C, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an antenna / cable disconnection detection method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] 10A-10C illustrate the amplitude (as a function of frequency) of the parasitic reference signal for different antenna / cable disconnection scenarios and different antenna matching scenarios, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] 2 is a block diagram illustrating the wireless communication device of FIG. 1 performing a wireless communication / environment sensing test according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] 2 is a block diagram illustrating the wireless communication device of FIG. 1 using Wi-Fi sensing to perform some of the antenna / cable disconnection detection functions described herein, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] 10A-10C illustrate different antenna / cable disconnection scenarios as a function of distance and time of an object detected using Wi-Fi sensing, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] 1A and 1B illustrate parasitic and reference paths of a parasitic reference signal detected using Wi-Fi detection, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method for antenna / cable disconnection detection according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 11A] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method for antenna / cable disconnection detection according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 11B] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method for antenna / cable disconnection detection using Wi-Fi sensing, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 12]2 is a detailed block diagram of the wireless communication device of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] FIG. 1 illustrates a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0005] In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structures, and techniques have not been shown in detail, but rather have been shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the understanding of this description.

[0006] Reference in the description to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" in various places in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.

[0007] Wireless communications in a multiprotocol device can be interrupted for a variety of reasons. One reason includes the disconnection of the antenna and / or cable used by the transceiver to transmit / receive information. Detecting antenna or cable disconnections in a multiprotocol device is important to ensure proper operation of the multiprotocol device. This is particularly important for automotive applications, where transceiver chips may be located farther from their corresponding antennas (e.g., to allow for ideal antenna positioning) and may use radio frequency (RF) cables to connect the transceiver chips to their corresponding antennas. If the cable connecting the transceiver chip to its corresponding antenna is disconnected, it is difficult to know / locate where along its length the cable was disconnected. Technicians must be able to rule out physical antenna disconnections as a potential problem without having to open up a section of the vehicle, which can be costly in terms of time and resources.

[0008] Therefore, a diagnostic test that can be run from, for example, the settings menu of the vehicle infotainment system is desirable. Many current solutions utilize dedicated antenna / cable disconnection detection hardware on their multi-protocol devices. However, such solutions are costly not only in terms of hardware real estate but also from a financial perspective.

[0009] Embodiments described herein relate to techniques for performing antenna / cable disconnection using co-located communication devices. Such techniques may be implemented, for example, as part of a multi-protocol communication device that implements co-located transceivers and eliminates the need for dedicated antenna / cable disconnection hardware as described above. A first transceiver (also referred to as a reference device) may transmit a reference signal over a predetermined bandwidth. The reference signal may be transmitted as a parasitic signal via parasitic or spatially engineered coupling to a second transceiver (co-located with the first transceiver).

[0010] The processing device of the multi-protocol communication device may determine the amplitude of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth. This is because, as described in further detail herein, the amplitude ratio of the parasitic signal at multiple frequencies in the predetermined bandwidth differs for different antenna / cable disconnection scenarios. The processing device may implement a classifier having reference data including an amplitude shape and an average amplitude of a reference signal received at the second device over a wide range of frequencies (including the predetermined bandwidth) for each of a set of different antenna / cable disconnection scenarios. The processing device may compare the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth with the reference data for each of the set of different antenna / cable disconnection scenarios to classify the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth into one of the set of antenna / cable disconnection scenarios.

[0011] In one embodiment, an apparatus is disclosed that includes a first device for transmitting a reference signal over a predetermined bandwidth and a second device for receiving a parasitic signal corresponding to the reference signal through parasitic or spatially designed coupling, the second device being co-located with the first device. The apparatus may include a port for coupling a first end of a cable to the second device, the second end of the cable being configured to connect to an antenna. The apparatus may further include a processing device for determining the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth. The processing device may determine a disconnection state of one or more of the antenna and the cable based on the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a multiprotocol communication device 100 (hereinafter referred to as device 100), which may be a multiprotocol combination communication chip that combines a first transceiver operating using a first communication protocol and a second transceiver operating using a second communication protocol. Note that the communication protocols used by the first and second transceivers need not be different. In the example of FIG. 1, device 100 may include a BT transceiver 110 and a WLAN transceiver 115 co-located on the same chip. Additionally, device 100 may be implemented on a single die or using multiple dies in a single package. WLAN transceiver 115 may include a transmit chain 118A and a receive chain 118B, both of which may include signal processing components such as low-noise amplifiers, mixers, variable-gain amplifiers, and low-pass filters (not shown). The WLAN transceiver 115 may further include a T / R switch 118C for switching between the transmit chain 118A and the receive chain 118B. More specifically, the T / R switch 118C may selectively couple the port 130 to the transmit chain 118A to enable transmission of signals via the antenna 119, or may couple the port 130 to the receive chain 118B to enable reception of signals via the antenna 119. The cable 120 may be coupled to the port 130 and the antenna 119. The transmit chain 118A may also be coupled to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 117A, which may be used to digitize the received signal and output the digitized signal to a digital demodulator 116 (also referred to as a digital detector), which may extract any information content from the received digitized signal (e.g., by extracting the information-bearing signal from the carrier wave). Similarly, the BT transceiver 110 may be coupled to a port 132 to which a first end of the cable 112 may be coupled. A second end of the cable 112 may be coupled to an antenna 111 via which the BT transceiver 110 may transmit and receive signals.Although the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115 are shown as being located on the same chip, this is not a requirement and the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115 may be co-located while still being implemented on different chips.

[0013] 1 , device 100 further includes a processing device 105 and memory 106, which may include an antenna / cable disconnection detection module 107. Processing device 105 may execute module 107 to perform the antenna / cable disconnection detection techniques described herein. While illustrated as a software module stored in memory 106 and accessed / executed by processing device 105 by way of example, the functionality of module 107 may be implemented using dedicated hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) or as a firmware module within processing device 105. Module 107 may include a wireless communication and environment sensing module 107A, a disconnection detection module 107B, and an antenna connection quality module 107C. While shown as having a single processing device 105 for operating both the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115, this is also not a limitation, and each of the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115 may include their own memory in which the modules 107 may be stored, and their own processing device for executing the modules 107 to perform the associated functions described herein.

[0014] 1 illustrates an example in which the processing device 105 is determining a disconnection status of the antenna 111 and / or cable 112 of the BT transceiver 110, whereby the WLAN transceiver 115 serves as a reference device and the BT transceiver 110 serves as a receiver device (i.e., the device being diagnosed), as described in further detail herein. As will be appreciated, the processing device 105 may use the methods described herein to determine a disconnection status of the antenna 119 and / or its respective cable 120 by using the WLAN transceiver 115 as the receiver device and the BT transceiver 110 as the reference device.

[0015] As described above, the WLAN transceiver 115 may utilize the T / R switch 118C to switch between the transmit chain 118A and the receive chain 118B. Upon executing module 107B, the processing device 105 may utilize the transmit chain 118A to transmit the reference signal 121 over a predetermined bandwidth using the antenna 119. The T / R switch 118C may couple the port 130 to the transmit chain 118A to enable transmission of the reference signal 121 via the antenna 119. As the reference signal 121 travels from the transmit chain 118A to the T / R switch 118C (the transmit path of the T / R switch 118C), it may be received by the receive chain 118B via the receive path of the T / R switch 118C, as shown in FIG. 1 . In some embodiments, the reference signal 121 may be received by the receive chain 118B via coupling occurring within the WLAN transceiver 115 or coupling outside the WLAN transceiver (i.e., the coupling may occur before or after the T / R switch 118C). Note that the signal actually transmitted by the antenna 119 (shown in FIG. 1 as transmit signal 123) may differ from the reference signal 121 due to reflections caused by improper operation of the antenna 119. Additionally, when the reference signal 121 travels from the transmit chain 118A to the T / R switch 118C, it may be transmitted (as parasitic signal 122) to the transmit / receive path of the Bluetooth transceiver 110 via parasitic or spatially designed coupling, as shown in FIG. 1. The Bluetooth transceiver 110 may include a port 132 to which one end of the cable 112 is connected. The other end of the cable 112 may be connected to the antenna 111.

[0016] 1, the energy of the parasitic signal 122 may split into two paths: a first path directly to the BT transceiver 110 and a second path along the cable 112 toward the antenna 111 (assuming the cable 112 is connected to the port 132 as described herein). The processing device 105 may detect the antenna 111 / cable 112 connection status based on the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth (i.e., the ratio of different amplitudes of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth), as described in further detail herein.

[0017] The predetermined bandwidth may be determined by the devices involved in the disconnection detection. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, if the devices involved in the disconnection detection are a combination of a Wi-Fi transceiver and a BT / BLE transceiver, the predetermined bandwidth may be limited by the bandwidth limitations of the BT / BLE device. For example, the BT transceiver 110 may be limited to 80 MHz, and therefore the predetermined bandwidth may be set to 80 MHz. In such a situation, the processing device 105 may transmit the reference signal 121 as a series of tones across the predetermined bandwidth or as a single signal that switches across different sets of channels or subcarriers (multiple tones) within the predetermined bandwidth.

[0018] If both devices involved in disconnection detection are Wi-Fi transceivers, a very wide bandwidth is available and the predetermined bandwidth may span a wide frequency range. Processing device 105 may transmit reference signal 121 as a series of tones across the predetermined bandwidth or as a single signal including multiple tones within the predetermined bandwidth.

[0019] 2A, when the cable 112 is disconnected from the port 132 (i.e., both the cable 112 and the antenna 111 are disconnected), all of the energy of the parasitic signal 122 follows the first path directly to the BT transceiver 110, and there is no energy loss due to some of the energy of the parasitic signal 122 traveling on the cable 112 (e.g., on the second path). Thus, in a scenario where the cable 112 is disconnected from the port 132, a relatively large amplitude is expected for the parasitic signal 122 across the entire range of the predetermined bandwidth, as shown in FIG.

[0020] FIG. 2B illustrates a scenario in which the cable 112 is connected to the port 132 but disconnected from the antenna 111. The cable 112 may be disconnected from the antenna 111 because the antenna 111 is simply disconnected, because the connection / interface between the cable 112 and the antenna 111 is broken, or because the cable 112 is cut or severed at some point along its length. Because the cable 112 is connected to the port 132, some of the energy of the parasitic signal 122 travels a second path and, upon reaching the open end of the cable 112, propagates back along the cable 112 and can be received by the BT transceiver 110. However, the open end of the cable 112 is not impedance-matched to its surroundings (e.g., air). Therefore, as the parasitic signal 122 propagates back along the cable 112, it incurs energy losses due to the cable 112 itself. Because the antenna 111 is disconnected, there is no interference resulting in a signal being received by the antenna 111. As a result, in a scenario where cable 112 is connected to port 132 but disconnected from antenna 111, the expected amplitude of parasitic signal 122 is generally lower over a given bandwidth range compared to the situation where cable 112 is disconnected from port 132 (as shown in FIG. 3). In addition, there is interference (constructive and destructive) between the signal injected directly into the receiver and reflected from the cable end, which causes large minima / maximum values in the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 over a given bandwidth range, as shown in FIG.

[0021] 2C shows a scenario in which the cable 112 is connected to the port 132 and the antenna 111. Some of the energy of the parasitic signal 122 travels a second path and, upon reaching the antenna 111, suffers energy loss through the antenna 111 when the cable 112 and the antenna 111 are impedance-matched. The impedance matching between the antenna 111 and the cable 112 also means that the parasitic signal 122 is not reflected by the antenna 111. Therefore, there is no interference due to reflections. Note, however, that if the antenna 111 is operating improperly (e.g., damaged or suffering from a poor connection to the cable 112), there may be reflections that cause interference. The remaining energy of the parasitic signal 122 propagates back and can be received by the BT transceiver 110. However, in some scenarios, the parasitic signal 122 may experience some interference due to other signals received by the antenna 111. For example, if antennas 119 and 111 are located close to each other, a transmit signal 123 transmitted by antenna 119 may be received by antenna 111 through antenna coupling and may interfere with parasitic signal 122. As a result, in a scenario in which cable 112 is connected to port 132 and also to antenna 111, the expected amplitude of parasitic signal 122 is generally lower across a given bandwidth range compared to a situation in which cable 112 is disconnected from port 132, as shown in FIG. 3 . Note that assuming that the coupling between antenna 119 and antenna 111 is relatively small, the expected amplitude of parasitic signal 122 is generally lower across a given bandwidth range. If the coupling between antenna 119 and antenna 111 is large, the expected amplitude of parasitic signal 122 is generally comparable to or greater across a given bandwidth range compared to a situation in which cable 112 is disconnected from port 132. In addition, this includes interference images caused by the transmitted signal 123 received by antenna 111 from antenna 119 via antenna coupling as described above, as well as reflections of the reference signal 121 from conductive objects in the environment of device 100.As shown in FIG. 3, there are minimum / maximum amplitudes of the parasitic signal 122 over a range of a given bandwidth caused by the interference described herein with respect to FIG. 2C.

[0022] Referring back to FIG. 1, upon measuring the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth range, the processing device 105 may classify the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth range into one of the scenarios shown in FIGS. 2A-2C to determine the disconnection state of the cable 112 and / or antenna 111, as described in further detail herein.

[0023] FIG. 4 shows a functional block diagram of a disconnection detection method performed by execution of module 107B according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In block 401, processing device 105 may use transmit chain 118A to transmit reference signal 121 over a predetermined bandwidth using antenna 119. In block 402, as reference signal 121 travels from transmit chain 118A to T / R switch 118C (the transmit path of T / R switch 118C), it may be received by receive chain 118B via the receive path of T / R switch 118C, as shown in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, reference signal 121 may be received by receive chain 118B via coupling occurring inside WLAN transceiver 115 or coupling outside the WLAN transceiver (i.e., coupling may occur before or after T / R switch 118C). Note that the signal actually transmitted by antenna 119 (shown in FIG. 1 as transmit signal 123) may differ from reference signal 121 due to reflections caused by improper operation of antenna 119. Additionally, when the reference signal 121 moves from the transmit chain 118A to the T / R switch 118C, it may be transmitted (as parasitic signal 122) to the transmit / receive path of the BT transceiver 110 via parasitic coupling or spatially engineered coupling at block 403 (as shown in FIG. 1). As used herein, spatially engineered coupling may refer to coupling that occurs as a result of the proximity of two or more conductors or paths within a device.

[0024] In block 404, the processing device 105 may extract the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 (e.g., extract the amplitude from each parasitic signal 122 tone or from each channel on which the parasitic signal 122 is received) and may determine the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 across a predetermined bandwidth (i.e., the ratio of different amplitudes of the parasitic signal 122 across a predetermined bandwidth) in block 405. This is because, as mentioned above, the amplitude ratio of the parasitic signal 122 for multiple frequencies within a predetermined bandwidth behaves differently for different antenna / cable cut scenarios, as described with respect to FIGS.

[0025] In some embodiments, in block 406, processing device 105 may extract the amplitude of reference signal 121 received by receive chain 118B via the receive path of T / R switch 118C (e.g., extract the amplitude from each received signal 121 tone or from each channel on which reference signal 121 is received) and determine the amplitude of reference signal 121 across a predetermined bandwidth (i.e., the ratio of different amplitudes of reference signal 121 across a predetermined bandwidth). In block 405, processing device 105 may utilize the amplitude of reference signal 121 across the predetermined bandwidth to compensate for distortions in the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 across the predetermined bandwidth caused, for example, by temperature variations in WLAN transceiver 115 or variations in the behavior of a power amplifier (not shown) of WLAN transceiver 115 caused by different loads or changes in the load of the power amplifier (because reference signal 121 has these same distortions). For example, the processing device 105 may identify distortions common to the parasitic signal 122 and the reference signal 121 and remove such distortions from the parasitic signal 122 using any suitable method.

[0026] In block 407, the processing device 105 may use multiplicative correction (or any suitable method) to correct (scale) the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth to adjust for the effect of the BT transceiver 110's filter (not shown) on different frequencies.

[0027] At block 408, processing device 105 may implement a classifier for classifying the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into one of the three scenarios identified in FIGS. 2A-2C. The classifier has knowledge of the amplitude shape and average amplitude of a reference signal (similar to reference signal 121) received over a wide range of frequencies (including the predetermined bandwidth) by BT transceiver 110 from WLAN transceiver 115 via parasitic coupling for each of the scenarios described in FIGS. 2A-2C (hereinafter referred to as reference data for each of the scenarios discussed in FIGS. 2A-2C). Memory 106 may store the reference data for each of the scenarios described in FIGS. 2A-2C. In some embodiments, the reference data for each of the scenarios shown in FIGS. 2A-2C may be recorded and stored in memory 106 during manufacturing of device 100.

[0028] The classifier may include a shape detector and an average amplitude detector to determine the shape of the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth and the average amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth. The classifier may then compare the average amplitude and shape of the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth to reference data for each of the scenarios identified in Figures 2A-2C to classify the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth into one of the scenarios identified in Figures 2A-2C.

[0029] When the processing device 105 classifies the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into the scenario shown in FIG. 2B (i.e., determines that the cable 112 is connected to the port 132 but disconnected from the antenna 111), this may mean that the antenna 111 has been disconnected from the cable 112. However, this may also mean that the cable 112 has been cut or severed at some point along its length. Thus, in some embodiments, in response to classifying the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into the scenario shown in FIG. 2B, the processing device 105 (still running the classifier) may further determine the point along the length of the cable 112 at which the cable 112 was cut (if any). As mentioned above, as the energy of the parasitic signal 122 propagates back along the cable 112, it incurs energy losses due to the cable 112 itself. Additionally, as described herein, the parasitic signal 122 includes an interference image caused by the reference signal 121 received by the antenna 111 from the antenna 119 via antenna coupling, as described above with respect to FIG. 2C. As shown in FIG. 3 , there are minimum and maximum amplitudes of the parasitic signal 122 over a range of a predetermined bandwidth resulting from the interference image. As a result, the length of the cable 112 (i.e., the point at which the cable 112 is disconnected) can be based on the interference image (amplitude as a function of frequency) and / or the energy of the parasitic signal 122. Thus, the reference data can include additional cable distance reference data corresponding to the average amplitude and amplitude shape of the reference signal (including the interference image) received over a wide range of frequencies for various lengths of the cable 112 (i.e., various potential points at which the cable 112 is disconnected). The cable distance reference data can also include the average amplitude and amplitude shape of the reference signal received over a wide range of frequencies when the antenna 111 is simply disconnected from the cable 112.

[0030] For each potential point at which cable 112 is severed, processing device 105 may compare the average amplitude and shape of the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 (including the interference image) over a predetermined bandwidth with the cable distance reference data to determine the point at which cable 112 is severed. Upon determining that cable 112 is connected to port 132 but disconnected from antenna 111 and determining the point at which cable 112 is severed (if applicable), processing device 105 may notify a user of this in any suitable manner.

[0031] In some embodiments, the processing device 105 (execution module 107B) may perform an antenna / cable disconnection detection method based on a comparison of the parasitic signal 122 with the cable 112 signal outside the ISM band and within the ISM band. The cable 112 signal may refer to the reflection of the parasitic signal 122 from the end of the cable 112. Referring to FIG. 5 , when the processing device 105 performs a particular scan outside the ISM band, the measured amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 may be approximated by the cable 112 signal (including substrate-specific and chip-specific behavior). This is because the antenna 111 is not impedance-matched outside the ISM band, so the energy of the parasitic signal 122 is not lost. Therefore, if the processing device 105 determines that the amplitude (e.g., peak-to-peak amplitude) of the parasitic signal 122 outside the ISM region is similar to the amplitude (e.g., peak-to-peak amplitude) of the parasitic signal 122 within the ISM region, the processing device 105 may determine that the antenna 111 is disconnected from the cable 112.

[0032] If the amplitude of the cable 112 signal in the ISM region is different (e.g., smaller) than the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 in the ISM region, the processing device 105 may determine that the antenna 111 is connected to the cable 112. If the amplitude of the cable 112 signal in the ISM region is similar to the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 in the ISM region, the processing device 105 may determine that the antenna 111 is disconnected from the cable 112. If the processing device 105 determines that the parasitic signal 122 inside and outside the ISM band does not include the cable 112 signal (not shown in FIG. 5 ), the processing device 105 may determine that the cable 112 is disconnected from the port 132 of the BT transceiver 110.

[0033] In some embodiments, before executing module 107B to perform the antenna / cable disconnection detection method described above, processing device 105 may monitor communications by WLAN transceiver 115 and BT transceiver 110 to determine whether either of antennas 119 and 111 is potentially disconnected. Processing device 105 may do this by monitoring WLAN transceiver 115 and BT transceiver 110 to determine whether they are receiving external signals from any other devices (e.g., computing device 205 of FIG. 6 ) and, in some embodiments, also ensuring that they are detecting environmental changes, as described in further detail herein. Any devices may be devices that have never been paired or synchronized with device 100. Wireless communication and environmental sensing module 107A (hereinafter referred to as module 107A) may include logic to determine whether WLAN transceiver 115 and BT transceiver 110 can receive packets from any other devices and detect environmental changes.

[0034] 6, executing module 107A may cause processing device 105 to determine, for example, whether antenna 119 is receiving packets from computing device 205 over communication channel 1. If processing device 105 determines that packets are not being received, then in some embodiments it may immediately determine that there is a potential problem with antenna 119 and execute module 107B to perform the antenna / cable disconnection detection method described above.

[0035] In other embodiments, processing device 105 may obtain additional information regarding whether antenna 119 (shown in FIG. 6 as communication channel 2) can detect changes in its environment before executing module 107B. The changes in communication channel 2 may correspond to the movement of a person or other object within communication channel 2.

[0036] More specifically, processing device 105 may instruct BT transceiver 110 to transmit a first signal via antenna 111, and processing device 105 may measure the received signal strength of the transmitted signal at antenna 119. Processing device 105 may instruct BT transceiver 110 to transmit a second signal identical to the first signal via antenna 111, and may again measure the received signal strength of the second signal at antenna 119. If there is a change in the received signal strength between the first and second signals at antenna 119, processing device 105 may determine that device 100 is still able to detect a change in communication channel 2 and may still be functioning. However, if processing device 105 does not detect a difference in the received signal strength between the first and second signals at antenna 119, processing device 105 may determine that antenna 119 is potentially disconnected or destroyed and may execute module 107B to perform the antenna / cable disconnection detection method described above. In some embodiments, processing device 105 may execute module 107A continuously, while in other embodiments, processing device 105 executes module 107A at intervals.

[0037] 6 shows processing device 105 performing communication and / or environmental sensing for antenna 119 (using BT transceiver 110 as the reference device), it should be understood that processing device 105 may also perform communication and / or environmental sensing for antenna 111 (using WLAN transceiver 115 as the reference device) whenever it executes module 107A. In response to determining that either of antennas 119 and 111 is potentially disconnected using module 107A, processing device 105 may execute module 107B to perform a disconnection detection method for the device that includes the potentially disconnected antenna (in this example, BT transceiver 110 or WLAN transceiver 115).

[0038] The antenna / cable disconnection detection method performed by module 107B allows processing device 105 to detect when cable 112 is connected to port 132 and when antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 (e.g., the scenario of FIG. 2C), but cannot detect when antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 with a poor connection. When antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 with a poor connection (e.g., antenna 111 is close to metal), BT transceiver 110 is sensitive to the impedance change of antenna 111 (e.g., red curve sensitivity). Thus, in response to determining, based on the antenna / cable disconnection detection method performed by module 107B, that cable 112 is connected to port 132 and antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 (i.e., FIG. 2C), processing device 105 may execute antenna connection quality module 107C (hereinafter referred to as module 107C) to notify the user that an additional disconnection test requiring user action (e.g., touching antenna 111) is required to determine whether the connection of antenna 111 to cable 112 is faulty.

[0039] In some embodiments, execution of module 107C may cause processing device 105 to enter an impedance monitoring mode and provide instructions to the user to perform some action (e.g., touch antenna 111 with a hand and / or move antenna 111) within a predetermined period of time (e.g., the next 10 seconds). Processing device 105 may detect an impedance change in antenna 111 caused by the user's action within the predetermined period of time and, based on the detected impedance change, determine whether antenna 111 is poorly connected to cable 112. For example, in response to detecting an impedance change exceeding a threshold level, processing device 105 may determine that the connection of antenna 111 to cable 112 is poor. Upon determining that the connection of antenna 111 to cable 112 is poor, processing device 105 may notify the user thereof in any appropriate manner.

[0040] 7 illustrates device 100 when a first device and a second device are synchronized, and more specifically, illustrates device 100 implemented in a 2x2 Wi-Fi configuration. Two transceivers may be considered synchronized if both transceivers are implemented on a single chip with a common signal source (e.g., a phase-locked loop (PLL), a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)). As can be seen, instead of BT transceiver 110, device 100 includes a second WLAN transceiver 215 co-located with WLAN transceiver 115. In embodiments in which the devices involved in antenna / cable disconnection detection are synchronized, processing device 105 (when executing module 107B) may optionally utilize Wi-Fi sensing (also referred to herein as wireless sensing) to perform antenna / cable disconnection detection (as opposed to the method for antenna / cable disconnection detection described with respect to Figures 1-4), and (when executing module 107A) may optionally utilize Wi-Fi sensing to determine whether WLAN transceiver 115 and WLAN transceiver 215 are able to detect an environmental change (as opposed to the method for environmental sensing described with respect to Figure 6).

[0041] As shown in FIG. 7 , during normal operation of device 100, antenna 119 may continuously transmit reference signal 127 into the environment. As reference signal 127 travels on the transmit path of T / R switch 118C, it may be received by receive chain 118B (not shown in FIG. 7 ) of WLAN transceiver 115 via the receive path of T / R switch 118C. In some embodiments, reference signal 127 may be received by receive chain 118B via coupling occurring inside WLAN transceiver 115 or coupling outside the WLAN transceiver (i.e., coupling may occur before or after T / R switch 118C). Note that the signal actually transmitted by antenna 119 (shown in FIG. 7 as incident signal 126) may differ from reference signal 127 due to reflections caused by improper operation of antenna 119. Additionally, as the reference signal 127 travels on the transmit path of the T / R switch 118C, the reference signal 127 may be transmitted to the transmit / receive path of the WLAN transceiver 215 (as the receive signal 129) via parasitic coupling or spatially designed coupling, as shown in FIG. 7.

[0042] Additionally, as incident signals 126 move through the environment, they may reflect off objects 125, and reflected signals 128 may be received by antenna 111. When performing environmental sensing, processing device 105 may use reflected signals 128 to detect events or changes, such as, for example, movement of object 125. Because WLAN transceiver 115 and WLAN transceiver 215 are synchronized, processing device 105 has phase information of incident signals 126 (and therefore, corresponding reflected signals 128). The phase information may inform processing device 105 of the time when incident signal 126 was transmitted and its content, allowing processing device 105 to determine the corresponding reflected signal 128 (and received signal 129) for each incident signal 126. As the WLAN transceiver 115 continues to transmit incident signals 126 (via antenna 119) over time, the processing device 105 can use the corresponding reflected signals 128 received at antenna 111 to determine the distance to the object 125 (or the distance traveled by the reflected signals 128) over time using the time difference between the incident signals 126 and their corresponding reflected signals 128.

[0043] 8, if the antenna 111 and / or the cable 112 are disconnected during normal operation, the reflected signal 128 is not received by the WLAN transceiver 215. The processing device 105 may use Wi-Fi detection to detect such a disconnection based on the cable 112 signal (i.e., the reflection of the received signal 129 from the end of the cable 112). Because Wi-Fi detection measures reflections from the open end of the cable 112, the cable 112 signal may correspond to a signal reflected from an artificial, non-moving object N distances away (N corresponds to the distance of the cable 112). When the antenna 111 is disconnected, the processing device 105 may detect only the received signal 129 that includes the cable 112 signal. Thus, if the processing device 105 detects only the received signal 129 over time that includes the cable 112 signal indicating that it was reflected from a non-moving object N distances away, it may determine that the antenna 111 is disconnected, as shown in FIG. 8.

[0044] If the processing device 105 detects over time a received signal 129 including a cable 112 signal indicating that the signal has been reflected from a non-moving object closer than N distances (or closer than N distances and outside the threshold proximity of N distances), it may determine that the cable 112 has been disconnected from the port 132 because the actual target cannot be closer than the length of the cable 112, as shown in FIG. 8 .

[0045] In some embodiments, the processing device 105 may utilize Wi-Fi sensing to perform antenna / cable disconnection detection based on the parasitic and reflected paths of the received signal 129. As described herein, when the received signal 129 is detected in the transmit / receive path of the WLAN transceiver 215, the signal's energy may follow two paths: a parasitic path toward the WLAN transceiver 215 and a reflected path along the cable 112 that ultimately reflects back to the WLAN transceiver 215. The processing device 105 may use phase information contained in the received signal 129 to distinguish between the parasitic and reflected paths of the received signal 129.

[0046] When both the parasitic path and the reflected path of the received signal 129 are present, the processing device 105 may determine that the antenna 111 is disconnected. When only the parasitic path is present, the processing device 105 may determine that the cable 112 is disconnected from the WLAN transceiver 215. This is illustrated by FIG. 9, which shows the amplitudes of the parasitic and reflected paths over the distance of the cable 112. As can be seen, at distance "0" (i.e., at port 132), the amplitude of the parasitic path is maximum and the amplitude of the reflected path is zero. As the cable distance increases (i.e., the point where the cable 112 may be disconnected is further along its length), the amplitude of the parasitic path decreases and the amplitude of the reflected path increases up to a point. To measure the ranging spectrum, the processing device 105 may scan several Wi-Fi channels and extract the spectrum using any suitable super-resolution algorithm, such as correlation (IFFT).

[0047] 10 is a flow diagram of a method 1000 for detecting antenna and / or cable disconnection using two or more co-located wireless communication devices according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1000 may be performed by processing logic, which may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, processor, processing device, central processing unit (CPU), system-on-chip (SoC), etc.), software (e.g., instructions operating / executing on a processing device), firmware (e.g., microcode), or a combination thereof. For example, method 1000 may be performed by processing device 105 executing module 107.

[0048] 1, in block 1005, processing device 105 (execution module 107A) may monitor communications by WLAN transceiver 115 and BT transceiver 110 to determine whether either of antennas 119 and 111 is potentially disconnected before executing module 107B to perform the antenna / cable disconnection detection method described above. Processing device 105 may do this by monitoring antennas 119 and 111 to determine whether they are receiving external signals from any other devices (e.g., computing device 205 of FIG. 6) and ensuring that they are each able to detect changes in their environment, as described in further detail herein.

[0049] If, at decision block 1010, processing device 105 determines that antennas 119 and 111 are able to receive external signals and detect changes in the environment, processing device 105 may operate device 100 normally and continue monitoring antennas 119 and 111. In response to determining that either of antennas 119 and 111 is unable to receive external signals or detect changes in the environment, at block 1015 processing device 105 may execute module 107B to perform an antenna / cable disconnection detection method with respect to the antenna that is unable to receive external signals or detect changes in the environment.

[0050] If processing device 105 determines in decision block 1020 that cable 112 is disconnected or that only cable 112 is connected, processing device 105 may report this to the user in block 1030. If processing device 105 determines that both cable 112 and antenna 111 are connected or that there is a disconnection that cannot be determined with sufficient reliability, it may execute antenna connection quality module 107C (hereinafter referred to as module 107C) to notify the user that an additional disconnection test is needed, requiring user action (e.g., touching antenna 111) to determine whether the connection of antenna 111 to cable 112 is faulty. This is because the antenna / cable disconnection detection method performed by module 107B allows processing device 105 to detect when cable 112 and / or antenna 111 are disconnected / connected, but does not detect when antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 with a poor connection or when additional reliability of the disconnection determined by the antenna / cable disconnection detection method performed by module 107B is needed. When the antenna 111 is connected to the cable 112 with a poor connection (for example, the antenna 111 is close to metal), the BT transceiver 110 is sensitive to the impedance change of the antenna 111 (for example, red curve sensitivity).

[0051] In block 1025, upon execution of module 107C, processing device 105 may enter an impedance monitoring mode and provide instructions to the user to perform some action (e.g., touching antenna 111 with a hand and / or moving antenna 111) within a predetermined period of time (e.g., the next 10 seconds). Processing device 105 may detect an impedance change in antenna 111 caused by the user's action within the predetermined period of time and determine whether antenna 111 is connected to cable 112 with a poor connection based on the detected impedance change. For example, in response to detecting an impedance change exceeding a threshold level, processing device 105 may determine that the connection of antenna 111 to cable 112 is poor. In block 1030, processing device 105 may notify the user based on the results of the impedance monitoring mode.

[0052] 11A is a flow diagram of a method 1100 for detecting an antenna and / or cable disconnection using two or more co-located wireless communication devices according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1100 may be performed by processing logic, which may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, processor, processing device, central processing unit (CPU), system-on-chip (SoC), etc.), software (e.g., instructions operating / executing on a processing device), firmware (e.g., microcode), or a combination thereof. For example, method 1100 may be performed by processing device 105 executing module 107B.

[0053] Referring also to FIG. 1 , in block 1105, the processing device 105 may utilize the transmit chain 118A to transmit a reference signal 121 over a predetermined bandwidth using the antenna 119. The T / R switch 118C may couple a port 130 to the transmit chain 118A to enable transmission of the reference signal 121 via the antenna 119. As the reference signal 121 travels from the transmit chain 118A to the T / R switch 118C (the transmit path of the T / R switch 118C), it may be received by the receive chain 118B via the receive path of the T / R switch 118C, as shown in FIG. 1 . In some embodiments, the reference signal 121 may be received by the receive chain 118B via combining that occurs internal to the WLAN transceiver 115 or combining external to the WLAN transceiver (i.e., combining may occur before or after the T / R switch 118C). It should be noted that the signal actually transmitted by antenna 119 (shown as transmit signal 123 in FIG. 1 ) may differ from reference signal 121 due to reflections caused by improper operation of antenna 119. Additionally, when reference signal 121 travels from transmit chain 118A to T / R switch 118C, it may be transmitted (as parasitic signal 122) to the transmit / receive path of BT transceiver 110 via parasitic coupling or spatially designed coupling, as shown in FIG.

[0054] In block 1115, the processing device 105 may extract the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 (e.g., extract the amplitude from each parasitic signal 122 tone or from each channel on which the parasitic signal 122 is received) and determine the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 across a predetermined bandwidth (i.e., the ratio of different amplitudes of the parasitic signal 122 across a predetermined bandwidth). This is because, as mentioned above, the amplitude ratio of the parasitic signal 122 for multiple frequencies within a predetermined bandwidth behaves differently for different antenna / cable cut scenarios, as described with respect to FIGS. 2A-2C.

[0055] In some embodiments, processing device 105 may extract the amplitude of reference signal 121 (e.g., extract the amplitude from each received signal 121 tone or from each channel on which reference signal 121 is received) and determine the amplitude of reference signal 121 across a predetermined bandwidth (i.e., the ratio of different amplitudes of reference signal 121 across a predetermined bandwidth). Processing device 105 may utilize the amplitude of reference signal 121 across a predetermined bandwidth to compensate for distortions in the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 across a predetermined bandwidth caused, for example, by temperature variations in WLAN transceiver 115 or variations in the behavior of a power amplifier (not shown) of WLAN transceiver 115 caused by different loads or changes in power amplifier load (because reference signal 121 has these same distortions). For example, processing device 105 may identify distortions common to parasitic signal 122 and reference signal 121 and remove such distortions from parasitic signal 122 using any suitable method.

[0056] At block 1120, processing device 105 may implement a classifier for classifying the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into one of the three scenarios identified in FIGS. 2A-2C. The classifier has knowledge of the amplitude shape and average amplitude of the reference signal received by BT transceiver 110 from WLAN transceiver 115 via parasitic coupling over a wide range of frequencies (including the predetermined bandwidth) for each of the scenarios described in FIGS. 2A-2C (hereinafter referred to as reference data for each of the scenarios discussed in FIGS. 2A-2C). Memory 106 may store the reference data for each of the scenarios described in FIGS. 2A-2C. In some embodiments, the reference data for each of the scenarios shown in FIGS. 2A-2C may be recorded and stored in memory 106 during manufacturing of device 100.

[0057] The classifier may include a shape detector and an average amplitude detector to determine the shape of the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth and the average amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth. The classifier may then compare the average amplitude and shape of the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth to reference data for each of the scenarios identified in Figures 2A-2C to classify the parasitic signal 122 over the predetermined bandwidth into one of the scenarios identified in Figures 2A-2C.

[0058] When the processing device 105 classifies the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into the scenario shown in FIG. 2B (i.e., determines that the cable 112 is connected to the port 132 but disconnected from the antenna 111), this may mean that the antenna 111 has been disconnected from the cable 112. However, this may also mean that the cable 112 has been cut or severed at some point along its length. Thus, in some embodiments, in response to classifying the amplitude of the parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth into the scenario shown in FIG. 2B, the processing device 105 (still running the classifier) may further determine the point along the length of the cable 112 at which the cable 112 was cut (if any). As described above, as the energy of the parasitic signal 122 propagates back along the cable 112, it incurs energy loss due to the cable 112 itself. However, the shorter the length of the cable 112 (i.e., the closer the cable 112 is to the port 132, the less energy loss the parasitic signal 122 may incur. Thus, the reference data may include additional cable distance reference data corresponding to the average amplitude and amplitude shape of the reference signal received over a wide range of frequencies for various lengths of cable 112 (i.e., various potential points at which cable 112 is disconnected). The cable distance reference data may also include the average amplitude and amplitude shape of the reference signal received over a wide range of frequencies when antenna 111 is simply disconnected from cable 112.

[0059] Processing device 105 may compare the average amplitude and shape of the amplitude of parasitic signal 122 over a predetermined bandwidth with the cable distance reference data for each potential point at which cable 112 was disconnected to determine the point at which cable 112 was disconnected. Upon determining that cable 112 is connected to port 132 but disconnected from antenna 111 and determining the point at which cable 112 was disconnected (if applicable), processing device 105 may notify a user of this in any suitable manner.

[0060] 11B is a flow diagram of a method 1150 for detecting antenna and / or cable disconnection using two or more co-located wireless communication devices using Wi-Fi sensing, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1150 may be performed by processing logic, which may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, processor, processing device, central processing unit (CPU), system-on-chip (SoC), etc.), software (e.g., instructions operating / executing on a processing device), firmware (e.g., microcode), or a combination thereof. For example, method 1150 may be performed by processing device 105 executing module 107B.

[0061] 7, at block 1155, during normal operation of device 100, antenna 119 may continuously transmit reference signal 127, which is ultimately transmitted (as described above) into the environment via antenna 119 as incident signal 126. As reference signal 127 travels on the transmit path of T / R switch 118C, it may be received by receive chain 118B (not shown in FIG. 7) of WLAN transceiver 115 via the receive path of T / R switch 118C. In some embodiments, reference signal 127 may be received by receive chain 118B via coupling that occurs internal to WLAN transceiver 115 or coupling external to the WLAN transceiver (i.e., coupling may occur before or after T / R switch 118C). In block 1160, once the reference signal 127 travels on the transmit path of the T / R switch 118C, the reference signal 127 may be transmitted to the transmit / receive path of the WLAN transceiver 215 (as the receive signal 129) via parasitic coupling or spatially designed coupling, as shown in FIG.

[0062] Additionally, in block 1165, as incident signals 126 move in the environment, they may reflect off objects 125, and reflected signals 128 may be received by antenna 111. Because WLAN transceiver 115 and WLAN transceiver 215 are synchronized, processing device 105 has phase information for each incident signal 126 (and therefore the corresponding reflected signal 128). The phase information may inform processing device 105 of the time the incident signal 126 was transmitted and its contents, allowing processing device 105 to determine the corresponding reflected signal 128 (and received signal 129) for each incident signal 126. As WLAN transceiver 115 continues to transmit incident signals 126 (via antenna 119) over time, processing device 105 may perform antenna / cable cut detection in block 1170 based on the received signal 129 and reflected signal 128 received at antenna 111 (if any), as also described below with respect to FIG. 8.

[0063] 8, if the antenna 111 and / or the cable 112 are disconnected during normal operation, the reflected signal 128 is not received by the WLAN transceiver 215. The processing device 105 may use Wi-Fi detection to detect such a disconnection based on the cable 112 signal (i.e., the reflection of the received signal 129 from the end of the cable 112). Because Wi-Fi detection measures reflections from the open end of the cable 112, the cable 112 signal may correspond to a signal reflected from an artificial, non-moving object N distances away (N corresponds to the distance of the cable 112). When the antenna 111 is disconnected, the processing device 105 may detect only the received signal 129 that includes the cable 112 signal. Thus, if the processing device 105 detects only the received signal 129 over time that includes the cable 112 signal indicating that it was reflected from a non-moving object N distances away, it may determine that the antenna 111 is disconnected, as shown in FIG. 8.

[0064] If the processing device 105 detects over time a received signal 129 including a cable 112 signal indicating that the signal has been reflected from a non-moving object closer than N distances (or closer than N distances and outside the threshold proximity of N distances), it may determine that the cable 112 has been disconnected from the port 132 because the actual target cannot be closer than the length of the cable 112, as shown in FIG. 8 .

[0065] 12 is a simplified block diagram of a multi-protocol communication device 100 with a more detailed view of the WLAN transceiver 115 inserted, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 100 may include a general-purpose input / output (GPIO) 1205, a BT transceiver 110, and a WLAN transceiver 115. The GPIO 1205 may comprise uncommitted digital signal pins that may be used as inputs or outputs for the BT transceiver 110 and / or the WLAN transceiver 115. The WLAN transceiver 115 may include a processing device 1205, a memory 1210, a physical layer chip 1215, and a media access control (MAC) layer chip 1220. The physical layer chip 1215 may handle the conversion from a clocked digital format to an analog format suitable for transmission over longer distances, and vice versa. The MAC layer chip 1220 not only assembles and validates the bits received from the physical layer chip 1215 into packets, but can also receive packets of data, for example from the processing device 1205, and convert them into a stream of bits that it provides to the physical layer chip 1215. Note that Figure 12 shows an embodiment in which the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115 each include their own dedicated processing device and memory, and that instructions for performing the techniques described herein may be included as firmware in the memories of the BT transceiver 110 and the WLAN transceiver 115.

[0066] FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a communications device 1300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The communications device 1300 may completely or partially include and / or operate an exemplary embodiment of the communications device 100 or portions thereof, as described with respect to FIGS. 1-9. The communications device 1300 may be in the form of a computer system upon which a set of instructions may be executed to cause the communications device 1300 to perform any one or more of the methods described herein. The communications device 1300 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked arrangement, the communications device 1300 may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in a server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a P2P (or distributed) network environment.

[0067] Communications device 1300 may be an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet, a set-top box (STB), a voice-controlled hub (VCH), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, a television, a speaker, a remote control, a monitor, a handheld multimedia device, a handheld video player, a handheld gaming device, or a control panel, or any other machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Furthermore, while only a single communications device 1300 is shown, the term "device" should also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein.

[0068] Communications device 1300 is shown to include a processor 1302. In an embodiment, communications device 1300 and / or processor 1302 may include a processing device 1305, such as a system-on-chip processing device developed by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation of San Jose, California. Alternatively, communications device 1300 may include one or more other processing devices known to those skilled in the art, such as a microprocessor or central processing unit, an application processor, a host controller, a controller, a special-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. Bus system 1301 may include a communications block (not shown) for communicating with internal or external components, such as an embedded controller or application processor, via communications interface 1309 and / or bus system 1301.

[0069] The components of communication device 1300 may reside on a common carrier substrate, such as an IC die substrate, a multi-chip module substrate, etc. Alternatively, the components of communication device 1300 may be one or more separate ICs and / or individual components.

[0070] The memory system 1304 may include volatile and / or non-volatile memory, which may communicate with each other via the bus system 1301. The memory system 1304 may include, for example, random access memory (RAM) and program flash. The RAM may be static RAM (SRAM), and the program flash may be non-volatile storage that may be used to store firmware (e.g., control algorithms executable by the processor 1302 to perform the operations described herein). The memory system 1304 may include instructions 1303 that, when executed, perform the methods described herein. Portions of the memory system 1304 may be dynamically allocated to provide caching, buffering, and / or other memory-based functions.

[0071] The memory system 1304 may include a drive unit providing a machine-readable medium (e.g., software) that may store one or more sets of instructions 1303 that embody any one or more of the methods or functions described herein. The instructions 1303 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within other memory devices of the memory system 1304 and / or within the processor 1302 during execution by the communications device 1300, which in some embodiments constitute machine-readable media. The instructions 1303 may further be transmitted or received over a network via the communications interface 1309. The communications interface 1309 may be where the communications device 100 described herein is implemented.

[0072] While the machine-readable medium is a single medium in some embodiments, the term "machine-readable medium" should be interpreted to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and / or associated caches and servers) that store one or more sets of instructions. The term "machine-readable medium" should also be interpreted to include any medium that can store or encode a set of instructions for execution by a machine, causing the machine to perform any one or more of the example operations described herein. Thus, the term "machine-readable medium" should be interpreted to include, but is not limited to, solid-state memory, and optical and magnetic media.

[0073] Communications device 1300 is further shown to include a display interface 1306 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a touch screen, a cathode ray tube (CRT), and software and hardware support for display technologies), an audio interface 1308 (e.g., a microphone, a speaker, and software and hardware support for microphone input / output and speaker input / output). Communications device 1300 is also shown to include a user interface 1310 (e.g., a keyboard, buttons, switches, a touchpad, a touch screen, and software and hardware support for the user interface).

[0074] The above description sets forth numerous details. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the description.

[0075] Some portions of the detailed descriptions are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is herein generally conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are steps requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, the physical quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

[0076] It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. As is clear from the above description, unless otherwise stated, throughout the description, descriptions utilizing terms such as "send," "receive," "compare," "determine," "detect," "classify," and the like will be understood to refer to the actions and processes of a computing system or similar electronic computing device that manipulate and convert data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities in the computing system's registers and memory into other data that are similarly represented as physical quantities in the computing system's memory or registers or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.

[0077] The terms "example" or "exemplary" are used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as "example" or "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the terms "example" or "exemplary" is intended to present a concept in a concrete manner. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or." That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from context, "X includes A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, "X includes A or B" will be satisfied if X includes A, if X includes B, or if X includes both A and B. Additionally, the articles "a" and "an," as used in this application and the appended claims, should generally be construed to mean "one or more," unless otherwise specified or unless the singular form is clearly intended from the context. Furthermore, the use of the terms "an embodiment" or "one embodiment" or "an implementation" or "one implementation" throughout is not intended to refer to the same embodiment or implementation unless so stated.

[0078] The embodiments described herein may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk, including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. The term "computer-readable storage medium" should be interpreted to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., centralized or distributed databases and / or associated caches and servers) that store one or more sets of instructions. The term "computer-readable medium" should also be interpreted to include any medium that can store, encode, or carry a set of instructions for execution by a machine, causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present embodiments. Accordingly, the term "computer-readable storage medium" shall be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memory, optical media, electromagnetic media, and any medium capable of storing a set of instructions for execution by a machine and causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present embodiments.

[0079] The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. Additionally, the present embodiments are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be understood that a variety of programming languages can be used to implement the teachings of the embodiments described herein.

[0080] In the above description, numerous specific details are set forth, such as examples of particular systems, components, methods, etc., to facilitate an understanding of some embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that at least some embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known components or methods have not been described in detail or have been presented in simple block diagram form to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments. Thus, the above specific details are merely exemplary. It is contemplated that particular implementations may differ from these exemplary details and still be within the scope of the present embodiments.

[0081] It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not limiting. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the above description. Accordingly, the scope of the present embodiments should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

1. A first device configured to transmit a reference signal, A second device located in the same place as the first device, A port configured to connect the second device to the first end of the cable, A processing device operably coupled to the first device and the second device, A device equipped with, The second device is configured to receive a parasitic signal corresponding to the reference signal, and the parasitic signal is received via a coupling between the first device and the second device. The second end of the cable is configured to be connected to an antenna. The processing device is Determine the amplitude of the parasitic signal across different frequencies within a predetermined bandwidth. The system is configured to determine the disconnection state of one or more of the antenna and the cable based at least partially on the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth, To determine the state of one or more of the antenna and the cable, the processing device The amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth are compared with reference data for each of the set of truncation scenarios. Based on the above comparison, the configuration is configured to classify the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth into one of the set of truncation scenarios. Device.

2. The aforementioned set of cutting scenarios is A first scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second device and the antenna is connected to the second end of the cable, A second scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second device, but is cut along its length, A third scenario in which the first end of the cable is disconnected from the port of the second device, including, The apparatus according to claim 1.

3. The processing device is In response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth into the second scenario, the system is further configured to determine the point along the length of the cable at which it is cut by comparing the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth with cable distance reference data for each of the set of points along the cable. The apparatus according to claim 2.

4. The processing device is In response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth into a first scenario, the system provides instructions for interacting with the antenna. The system detects one or more impedance changes in the antenna caused by interaction with the antenna, The system is further configured to determine the quality of the connection between the antenna and the second end of the cable based on the impedance changes of one or more of the antenna. The apparatus according to claim 2.

5. The processing device is Determine whether the antenna is receiving packets from one or more arbitrary devices. The processing device is further configured to determine whether the antenna is detecting a change in the local communication environment, and in response to the determination that the antenna is not receiving packets from one or more arbitrary devices, or that the antenna is not detecting a change in the local communication environment, it transmits the reference signal via the first device. The apparatus according to claim 1.

6. The processing device uses wireless detection to determine whether the antenna of the second device has detected a change in the local communication environment. The apparatus according to claim 5.

7. The steps include transmitting a reference signal from the first device, A second device located in the same location as the first device receives a parasitic signal corresponding to the reference signal, wherein the parasitic signal is received via a coupling between the first device and the second device, the second device having a port for coupling to a first end of a cable, and the second end of the cable being coupled to an antenna. A step of determining the amplitude of the parasitic signal over different frequencies of a predetermined bandwidth, A step of determining the state of one or more disconnections of the antenna and the cable based at least partially on the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth, A method including, The step of determining the state of one or more of the antenna and the cable is: The steps include comparing the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth with reference data for each of the set of truncation scenarios, Based on the above comparison, the steps include classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth into one of the sets of truncation scenarios, including, method.

8. The aforementioned set of cutting scenarios is A first scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second device and the antenna is connected to the second end of the cable, A second scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second device, but is cut along its length, A third scenario in which the first end of the cable is disconnected from the port of the second device, including, The method according to claim 7.

9. The method further includes, in response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth into a second scenario, the step of comparing the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth with cable distance reference data for each of a set of points along the cable to determine the point along the length of the cable that has been cut, The method according to claim 8.

10. The aforementioned method, The steps include providing instructions for interacting with the antenna in response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth into a first scenario, The steps include detecting one or more impedance changes of the antenna caused by interaction with the antenna, A step of determining the quality of the connection between the antenna and the second end of the cable based on the one or more impedance changes of the antenna, Further including, The method according to claim 8.

11. The aforementioned method, The steps include determining whether the antenna is receiving packets from one or more arbitrary devices, A step of determining whether the antenna is detecting a change in the local communication environment, wherein in response to determining that the antenna is not receiving packets from the one or more arbitrary devices, or that the antenna is not detecting a change in the local communication environment, the reference signal is transmitted from the first device. Further including, The method according to claim 7.

12. The step of determining whether the antenna of the second device has detected a change in the local communication environment is performed using wireless detection. The method according to claim 11.

13. Antenna and A cable configured such that the second end of the cable is connected to the antenna, Multiprotocol communication devices and A system equipped with, The multiprotocol communication device is A reference signal is transmitted via the first transceiver. A parasitic signal corresponding to the reference signal is received via a second transceiver, the parasitic signal is received via a coupling between the first transceiver and the second transceiver, the second transceiver is coupled to the first end of the cable via a port of the multiprotocol communication device, The amplitude of the parasitic signal is determined over different frequencies of a predetermined bandwidth, The system is configured to determine the disconnection state of one or more of the antenna and the cable based at least partially on the amplitude of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth, In order to determine the state of one or more of the antenna and the cable that is disconnected, the multiprotocol communication device, The amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth are compared with reference data for each of the set of truncation scenarios. Based on the above comparison, the configuration is configured to classify the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over a predetermined bandwidth into one of the set of truncation scenarios. system.

14. The aforementioned set of cutting scenarios is A first scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second transceiver and the antenna is connected to the second end of the cable, A second scenario in which the first end of the cable is connected to the port of the second transceiver, but is cut along its length, A third scenario in which the first end of the cable is disconnected from the port of the second transceiver, including, The system according to claim 13.

15. The multiprotocol communication device is In response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth into the second scenario, the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth are further configured to be compared with cable distance reference data for each of the set of points along the cable to determine the point along the length of the cable that has been cut. The system according to claim 14.

16. The multiprotocol communication device is In response to classifying the amplitude and shape of the parasitic signal over the predetermined bandwidth into a first scenario, the system provides instructions for interacting with the antenna. The system detects one or more impedance changes in the antenna caused by interaction with the antenna, The system is further configured to determine the quality of the connection between the antenna and the second end of the cable based on the impedance changes of one or more of the antenna. The system according to claim 14.

17. The multiprotocol communication device is Determine whether the antenna is receiving packets from one or more arbitrary devices. The processing device is further configured to determine whether the antenna is detecting a change in the local communication environment, and in response to determining that the antenna is not receiving packets from one or more arbitrary devices, or that the antenna is not detecting a change in the local communication environment, it transmits the reference signal via the first transceiver. The system according to claim 13.

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