Hearing Instrument Data Package Exchange Protocol
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless data communication methodologies, such as Bluetooth LE, face challenges in power consumption, reliability, and real-time audio transport due to limitations in packet size, overhead data, and lack of real-time transport capabilities, making real-time audio streaming and stereo synchronization between hearing instruments unfeasible.
Innovation Solution
A method for exchanging data packages between portable communication devices, including hearing instruments, that involves generating and transmitting data packages with error detection codes, limiting retransmissions of audio data packages to reduce latency and power consumption, and discarding non-urgent data packages to maintain efficient communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If standardized wireless protocols like Bluetooth LE are used for data transmission, then device compatibility and ease of operation are improved, but real-time audio transport capability and reliability deteriorate due to lack of timeouts, flushes, and real-time transport mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data transmission into distinct packet categories (audio data packets and non-audio data packets) with different handling mechanisms. Audio packets use a streamlined protocol with limited retransmissions for real-time transport, while non-audio packets use standard acknowledgment protocols, resolving the contradiction between real-time capability and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic retransmission limits based on packet category and timing conditions. For audio packets, retransmissions are limited to at most N times within a time window T after receiving a NACK, allowing the system to adapt between real-time responsiveness and error correction based on actual transmission conditions.
2Reliability
If unlimited retransmissions are performed to ensure data reliability, then transmission reliability is improved, but transmission latency and power consumption worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic retransmission limits based on packet category and timing conditions. For audio packets, retransmissions are limited to at most N times within a time window T after receiving a NACK, allowing the system to adapt between real-time responsiveness and error correction based on actual transmission conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of retransmission count from unlimited to a limited value N for audio packets, and introduces a time window parameter T within which retransmissions must occur. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by bounding both latency (through time window) and reliability (through limited retransmissions).
3Device complexity
If standard packet sizes are used in Bluetooth LE, then protocol simplicity is maintained, but overhead data increases and real-time audio transport efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data stream into fixed-size audio packets with explicit length fields, allowing efficient handling of audio data without the overhead issues of standard Bluetooth LE packets. This segmentation enables precise control over packet size and content, reducing overhead while maintaining protocol simplicity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates in a first aspect to a method of exchanging data packages between a first portable communication device and a second portable communication device over a bi-directional wireless communication channel, where at least one of the first and second portable communication devices comprises a hearing instrument. The method comprises steps of generating, by the first portable communication device, a first data package belonging to a first packet category comprising audio data or to a second packet category without audio data and transmitting the first data package from the first portable communication device to the second portable communication device through the wireless communication channel. The method comprises further steps of monitoring the wireless communication channel for a second data package transmitted by the second portable communication device subsequent to receipt of the first data package. If an acknowledgement indicator of the second data package is unset or if the first hearing instrument fails to receive the second data package, the first portable communication device retransmits the first data package from the first to the second portable communication device for at the most N times if the first data package belongs to the first packet category; N being a positive integer between 1 and 4.