Wireless Communication Apparatus Reducing Power Consumption via BLE-Assisted AP Scanning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wireless communication systems face high power consumption in battery-powered devices during the process of scanning for access points, leading to reduced user-friendliness and potential connection issues when the wireless LAN channel of the configurator differs from that of the enrollee.
Innovation Solution
A wireless communication apparatus that utilizes a receiving unit to acquire channel information from another device via low-power BLE communication, allowing the selection and transmission of communication parameters through a higher-power wireless LAN connection, thereby reducing power consumption and ensuring compatible channel connections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the enrollee performs scanning through wireless LAN to detect surrounding APs, then the enrollee can acquire AP information for connection, but high power consumption is caused in the enrollee
Solution Approach 1:
The configurator acts as an intermediary that performs the scanning operation on behalf of the enrollee. The configurator scans for APs using wireless LAN and transmits the detected AP information to the enrollee via BLE, allowing the enrollee to acquire AP information without performing high-power scanning itself.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the enrollee performing scanning (traditional approach), the configurator performs the scanning operation. The roles are inverted so that the device receiving configuration information also performs the resource-intensive scanning task, thereby protecting the battery-powered enrollee from high power consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the configurator performs the scanning, then the power consumption in the enrollee is reduced, but the user-friendliness of the system is reduced when the wireless LAN channel supported by the configurator is different from that of the enrollee
Solution Approach 1:
The enrollee provides feedback to the configurator about its supported wireless LAN channels through BLE communication. The configurator uses this feedback information to filter and select only those APs that operate on channels compatible with the enrollee, ensuring that displayed AP options are actually connectable.
Solution Approach 2:
The configurator performs channel compatibility filtering in advance before presenting the AP list to the user. By preprocessing the scanned AP information to remove incompatible channels based on enrollee capabilities, the system prevents erroneous selections before they occur, maintaining user-friendliness.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a wireless communication apparatus that is able to perform a first wireless communication and a second wireless communication, the second wireless communication having power consumption lower than that of the first wireless communication. The wireless communication apparatus receives, from another wireless communication apparatus through the second wireless communication, information indicating a channel which the another wireless communication apparatus is able to use in the first wireless communication, selects a communication parameter to be provided to the another wireless communication apparatus based on the received information, the communication parameter being required by the another wireless communication apparatus to connect to an apparatus that forms a network in which the first wireless communication occurs; and transmits the selected communication parameter to the another wireless communication apparatus through the first wireless communication.