LE Audio Broadcast Handover Using Shared BIS Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing LE Audio systems face challenges in achieving seamless transmitter device handover between multiple devices without imposing additional burdens on receiver devices in terms of scheduling and energy consumption, often requiring user intervention and resynchronization.
Innovation Solution
The system maintains synchronization between the first and second LE Audio transmitter devices using a shared transmitter configuration, allowing the second device to seamlessly take over audio content transmission using the same configuration as the first device, ensuring no resynchronization or user interaction is needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If receiver devices discover and synchronize with the second transmitter device after the first transmitter device terminates broadcasting, then the receiver devices can receive audio from the second transmitter device, but this process takes several hundreds of milliseconds and causes the receiver devices to miss an important part of the speech
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having the second transmitter device pre-synchronize with the first transmitter device's broadcast configuration before the handover occurs. The receiver devices remain synchronized with the first transmitter device, and when handover is needed, the second device is already in position to seamlessly take over without requiring discovery or resynchronization, thus eliminating the hundreds of milliseconds delay and preventing speech content loss.
2Speed
If receiver devices remain synchronized with both the first and second transmitter devices, then the handover can be faster, but this imposes an extra burden on the receiver devices in terms of scheduling and energy consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the synchronization burden from the receiver devices by having the transmitter devices handle synchronization among themselves. The second transmitter device synchronizes with the first transmitter device's broadcast configuration, and the receiver devices simply remain synchronized with the first transmitter device throughout the transition. This removes the need for receivers to actively manage synchronization with multiple devices, eliminating the extra scheduling and energy consumption burden while still enabling fast handover.
3Speed
If the first transmitter device transmits link parameters to the second transmitter device for impersonation, then the receiver devices can quickly detect and synchronize with the second transmitter device, but the LE Audio specifications do not guarantee that a receiver device automatically starts to detect and quickly resynchronizes
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses the first transmitter device's broadcast configuration as an intermediary mechanism. Instead of relying on receiver devices to detect and resynchronize with the second transmitter device (which LE Audio specifications don't guarantee), the system maintains the receiver devices' synchronization with the first transmitter device's configuration. The second transmitter device adopts this same configuration, allowing seamless handover without requiring receiver device detection or resynchronization actions, thus ensuring reliable automatic handover guaranteed by the specifications.
4Ease of operation
If a user gesture is required to switch between transmitter devices, then the handover can be controlled, but this makes the user experience even worse
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically managing the handover process without requiring user gestures or intervention. The second transmitter device automatically synchronizes with the first transmitter device's broadcast configuration and seamlessly takes over audio transmission. The receiver devices remain synchronized throughout the process, enabling automatic, seamless handover that improves user experience by eliminating the need for user gestures while maintaining full control over the transition.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
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AI summary
There is provided a method for providing audio content from a first LE Audio transmitter device (10) or a second LE Audio transmitter device (20) to an LE Audio receiver device (30-1, 30-2; 32-1, 32-2; 34-1, 34-2), comprising: synchronizing the LE Audio receiver device and the second LE Audio transmitter device with the first LE Audio transmitter device; broadcasting, by the first LE Audio transmitter device using a first transmitter configuration and a first Broadcast Isochronous Stream (BIS) (40), a first audio content for reception by the LE Audio receiver device; and providing a transmitter device handover (100) by interrupting broadcasting of the first audio content by the first LE Audio transmitter device and starting broadcasting a second audio content, for reception by the LE Audio receiver device, by the second LE Audio transmitter device using said first transmitter configuration and said first BIS.