BLE SCATTERNET SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

A BLE network includes a first piconet (A) including a first master scanner (3-1) and a first group of low-power slave/advertisers (5-1,2 . . . 5) for transmitting wireless advertisements and for establishing wireless connections with the first master/scanner. Circuitry (3,55) in the first master/scanner wirelessly scans to detect an advertisement (58,62) transmitted by a first slave/advertiser (5-1) of the first group and transmits a connection request (58,62) in response to the detecting, and transmits a schedule (60) for subsequent advertisements after an initial advertisement by the first slave/advertiser to complete synchronization of the first master/scanner with the first slave/advertiser. Circuitry (5,39) in the first slave/advertiser transmits the initial advertisement (42), receives an acceptance a resulting connection request, establishes association (44) with the first master scanner, and then causes the first slave/advertiser to go to sleep, to wake up and transmit subsequent advertisements according to the schedule (50) and accept resulting connection requests, and transmits available data to the first master/scanner, and goes back to sleep.

主权项

1. A BLE (Bluetooth low energy) network comprising:
(a) a first piconet including a first master scanner and a first group of slave/advertisers for transmitting wireless advertisements and for establishing wireless connections, respectively, with the first master/scanner; (b) circuitry in the first master/scanner for
(1) wireless scanning to detect an advertisement transmitted by a first slave/advertiser of the first group and transmitting a connection request in response to the detecting, and(2) transmitting a schedule for subsequent advertisements after an initial advertisement by the first slave/advertiser to thereby complete synchronization of the first master/scanner with the first slave/advertiser; and (c) circuitry in the first slave/advertiser for
(1) transmitting the initial advertisement, receiving and accepting a resulting connection request, and establishing an association with the first master scanner, after which the first slave/advertiser goes to sleep in a reduced-power mode,(2) waking up and transmitting subsequent advertisements according to the schedule, and(3) accepting resulting connection requests from the first master/scanner if data is available to be advertised, transmitting the available data to the first master/scanner, and going back to sleep.