Reducing power consumption when bridging independent chipsets

摘要

A wireless communication device architecture is provided. The wireless communication device can include a WLAN chipset, a cellular chipset, and an application processor. The application processor can include a first portion and a second portion. The first portion can include at least one root complex powered via a dedicated power domain, which can be independent of at least one second power domain that can power the second portion. The WLAN chipset can coupled to a first port of the at least one root complex via a first interface. The cellular chipset can be coupled to a second port of the at least one root complex via a second interface. The at least one root complex can use power received via the dedicated power domain to bridge the WLAN chipset and the cellular chipset while the second portion of the application processor is sleeping.

主权项

1. A wireless communication device for sharing a network connection, the wireless communication device comprising:
a wireless local area network (WLAN) chipset; a cellular chipset; and an application processor comprising a first portion and a second portion, the first portion of the application processor comprising at least one root complex powered via a dedicated power domain, the dedicated power domain being independent of at least one second power domain configured to power the second portion of the application processor; wherein the WLAN chipset is coupled to a first port of the at least one root complex via a first Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus interface; wherein the cellular chipset is coupled to a second port of the at least one root complex via a second PCIe bus interface; wherein the wireless communication device is configured to share a connection to a cellular network supported by the cellular chipset with a tethered device coupled to the wireless communication device via a WLAN connection supported by the WLAN chipset; and wherein the at least one root complex is configured to use power received via the dedicated power domain to implement a peer-to-peer (P2P) function to bridge the WLAN chipset and the cellular chipset to convey data exchanged between the tethered device and the cellular network while the second portion of the application processor is sleeping.