Wireless Relay Network Synchronizing Isochronous Audio Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) systems face limitations in extending the range and ensuring uniform loudness for audio data transmission, particularly in scenarios where additional speakers are used to increase range, leading to perceived echoes and inconsistent playback due to limited range of broadcast isochronous streams.
Innovation Solution
A relay network of wireless communications devices is configured to update the presentation delay of each device, synchronizing audio playback by relaying isochronous data across multiple hops, ensuring precise timing and eliminating echoes by adjusting the presentation delay to accommodate additional devices in the network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If additional speakers are used to increase the range of audio data transmission, then the coverage area is improved, but synchronization precision deteriorates due to limited range of broadcast isochronous streams
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the audio streaming path into multiple relay hops through intermediate devices. Each device in the relay network receives, processes, and retransmits the audio data, breaking down the long transmission path into shorter segments that maintain synchronization precision while extending overall coverage area.
Solution Approach 2:
Intermediate wireless communication devices act as mediators in the relay network. These intermediary devices receive audio data from the source, adjust presentation delays, and forward the data to subsequent devices, enabling extended range transmission while maintaining synchronization through coordinated delay management.
2Stability of the object's composition
If presentation delay is increased to accommodate relay network transmission, then synchronization is improved across multiple devices, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary delay adjustment by calculating and setting appropriate presentation delays for each device in the relay network before audio data transmission begins. This preliminary configuration ensures that all devices are pre-synchronized to their correct playback times, maintaining synchronization stability while minimizing actual playback latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the presentation delay parameter for each device based on its position in the relay network. By changing this temporal parameter according to the number of relay hops and transmission characteristics, the system achieves synchronization stability without unnecessarily increasing overall latency.
3Length of stationary object
If multiple devices relay isochronous data across multiple hops, then the transmission range is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each wireless communication device in the relay network is designed with multi-functionality, capable of acting as both a receiver and a transmitter, and potentially as both a relay node and an end device. This universal design simplifies the overall network complexity by using identical standardized devices rather than requiring specialized components for different network positions.
Data Source
AI summary
A relay network of wireless devices extends the range of synchronized playback of broadcast audio signals. A method for delivering isochronous data using a relay network includes receiving first data of an isochronous data stream from a first wireless communications device of the relay network having a first presentation delay. The first data is received by a second wireless communications device of the relay network having a second presentation delay. The method includes presenting the first data by the first wireless communications device and the second wireless communications device at a time after transmission of the first data in a second isochronous data stream by the second wireless communications device. The first data may be presented by each wireless communications device in the relay network after transmission of the first data by a last wireless communications device in the relay network.