BLE Peripheral Anchor Point Coordination for Multi-Central Collision Avoidance

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Solution Overview

Problem

The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) specification does not provide a way for a BLE peripheral to influence the placement of anchor points with multiple BLE centrals, leading to communication collisions and degraded performance in multi-central scenarios.

Innovation Solution

A BLE peripheral is configured to provide indications of anchor point times or preferences to multiple potential BLE centrals before establishing connections, allowing the peripheral to influence the placement of anchor points and avoid collisions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a BLE peripheral connects to multiple BLE centrals without influencing anchor point placement, then connection establishment is simple, but communication collisions occur and performance degrades

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication reliabilityVSAvoidconnection management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The peripheral device performs preliminary actions by providing indications of anchor point times or preferences to multiple BLE centrals before establishing connections. This advance coordination allows the peripheral to influence anchor point placement and avoid communication collisions, resolving the contradiction between communication reliability and connection management complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If anchor points are established without pre-coordination, then connection setup is fast, but communication collisions increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication reliabilityVSAvoidconnection establishment time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The peripheral device provides indications of anchor point times or preferences to BLE centrals before connection establishment, enabling pre-coordination of anchor points. This preliminary action ensures communication reliability by avoiding collisions while maintaining efficient connection setup, addressing the trade-off between communication reliability and connection establishment time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Reliability

If the peripheral influences anchor point placement with multiple centrals, then communication collisions are reduced, but the complexity of connection management increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication reliabilityVSAvoidanchor point coordination complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The peripheral device acts as an intermediary by providing indications of anchor point times or preferences to multiple BLE centrals. This intermediary role enables coordinated anchor point placement that reduces communication collisions while managing complexity through structured information exchange, resolving the contradiction between communication reliability and anchor point coordination complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS20250193647A1Wireless connection establishment between peripheral device and multiple central devices

Publication Date: 2025.06.12 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC

AI summary

A method includes receiving, by a peripheral device, a first connection request from a first central device; providing, by the peripheral device, a first indication of an anchor point time to the first central device before establishing a first wireless connection with the first central device; and responding, by the peripheral device, to the first connection request and establishing the first wireless connection using a first anchor point based on the first indication.