Establishing a wireless communications bus and applications thereof
View Patent ↗Disclosed herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods for establishing wireless communications among a plurality of wireless-enabled components (WECs), and applications thereof. Such a system includes a plurality of WECs, each configured to transmit and receive over a wireless bus. The wireless bus includes (i) a first channel to identify proximally located WECs and (ii) a second channel to support communications among the proximally located WECs. The plurality of WECs may be located on a single chip, on multiple chips of a single device, or on multiple chips across multiple devices.
1. A method implemented in a wireless-enabled component (WEC), comprising:
transmitting, via a first channel, a signal to one or more other WECs;
receiving, via the first channel, a response from the one or more other WECs, wherein the one or more other WECs and the WEC are located within one or more chips within a device;
determining a relative position and capabilities of the one or more other WECs based on the received response, wherein the relative position includes a direction of the one or more other WECs relative to the WEC and a distance between the one or more other WECs and the WEC;
selecting a communication mechanism for communicating over a second channel based on the relative position and capabilities of the one or more other WECs; and
communicating, via the second channel, with the one or more other WECs in accordance with the selected communication mechanism.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first channel has a lower bandwidth than the second channel.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first channel has a frequency of approximately 2.420 GHz to approximately 2.421 GHz and the second channel has a frequency of approximately 2.419 GHz to approximately 2.428 GHz.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted signal includes a locating beacon.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received response includes a locating beacon from each of the one or more other WECs.
6. A wireless-enabled component (WEC), comprising:
a functional resource; and
a communications module that is configured to:
transmit, via a first channel, a signal to one or more other WECs;
receive, via the first channel, a response from the one or more other WECs, wherein the one or more other WECs and the WEC are located within one or more chips within a device;
determine a relative position and capabilities of the one or more other WECs based on the received response, wherein the relative position includes a direction of the one or more other WECs relative to the WEC and a distance between the one or more other WECs and the WEC;
select a communication mechanism for communicating over a second channel based on the relative position and capabilities of the one or more other WECs; and
communicate, via the second channel, with the one or more other WECs in accordance with the selected communication mechanism.
7. The WEC of claim 6 , wherein the functional resource comprises one of a processing resource and a memory resource.
8. The WEC of claim 6 , wherein the first channel has a lower bandwidth than the second channel.
9. The WEC of claim 8 , wherein the first channel has a frequency of approximately 2.420 GHz to approximately 2.421 GHz and the second channel has a frequency of approximately 2.419 GHz to approximately 2.428 GHz.
10. The WEC of claim 6 , wherein the transmitted signal includes a locating beacon.
11. The WEC of claim 6 , wherein the received response includes a locating beacon from each of the one or more other WECs.
12. The WEC of claim 6 , further comprising:
a locating module configured to determine the relative position of each of the one or more other WECs.
13. A system, comprising:
a plurality of wireless-enabled components (WECs), each configured to transmit and receive over a wireless bus, wherein the wireless bus includes a first channel and a second channel,
wherein a first WEC from the plurality of WECs is configured to:
transmit, via the first channel, a signal to at least one other WEC from the plurality of WECs;
receive, via the first channel, a response from the other WEC, wherein the other WEC and the first WEC are located within one or more chips within a device;
determine a relative position and capabilities of the other WEC based on the received response, wherein the relative position includes a direction of the other WEC relative to the first WEC and a distance between the other WEC and the first WEC;
select a communication mechanism for communicating over the second channel based on the relative position and capabilities of the other WEC; and
communicate, via the second channel, with the other WEC in accordance with the selected communication mechanism.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first channel has a lower bandwidth than the second channel.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first channel has a frequency of approximately 2.420 GHz to approximately 2.421 GHz and the second channel has a frequency of approximately 2.419 GHz to approximately 2.428 GHz.
16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the transmitted signal includes a locating beacon.
17. The system of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of WECs comprises a functional resource.
18. The system of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of WECs comprises:
a locating module configured to determine the relative position of each of the plurality of WECs.
19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of WECs is located on a single chip.
20. The system of claim 13 , wherein:
a first subset of the plurality of WECs is located on a first chip; and
a second subset of the plurality of WECs is located on a second chip.
21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the first chip and the second chip are located in a single device.
22. The system of claim 20 , wherein the first chip and the second chip are located in separate devices.
23. The system of claim 13 , wherein the received response includes at least one of a backscatter-transmitted signal, a scattered signal, and a return-transmission signal.
24. The system of claim 13 , wherein the relative position of the other WEC is determined using at least one of a radar technique and a sonar technique.
25. The system of claim 13 , wherein the relative position of the other WEC is determined by a controller located at a position removed from the first WEC.
26. The system of claim 13 , wherein the selected communication mechanism includes communicating using at least one of an electrically steered phased array, a MEMS-based phased array, a mechanically steered directional antenna, an optical phased array, and a mechanically steered optical transceiver.
27. The system of claim 13 , wherein the capabilities of the at least one other WEC is indicative of at least one of communication capabilities, processing capabilities, linking capabilities, computing capabilities and resource capabilities of the one or more other WECs.