Co-existence for co-located radios which operate in the same frequency band
View Patent ↗A co-existence method is described. The method comprises setting a priority level of a slot based on the likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio and signaling the priority level to radio which is co-located with the first radio and which shares a resource with the first radio. The slot may, for example, be a re-transmission slot following a primary transmission slot or may be a sniff anchor point. The likelihood may be determined based on one or more factors, such as historical data or knowledge of the activity of a peer of the first radio.
1. A method comprising:
setting a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio; and
signaling the priority level to a second radio, wherein the first and second radios are co-located and share a resource;
wherein setting a priority level of slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio comprises:
determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio; and
setting a priority level based on the likelihood;
wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot and wherein determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio comprises:
computing a metric, the metric comprising one of a number of re-transmission slots used in a defined period and a number of failures in a primary transmission slot.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the resource comprises at least one of a frequency band and an antenna.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first radio comprises a Bluetooth radio and the second radio comprises one of a Bluetooth radio, a WiFi radio, a WiMAX radio and a UWB radio.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the likelihood is determined based on historical data.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio comprises:
receiving data from the first radio; and
determining a likelihood that the slot will be used by at least one of the first radio and a peer of the first radio.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein setting a priority level based on the likelihood comprises:
comparing the metric to a threshold value; and
setting the priority level based on a result of the comparison.
8. A method comprising:
setting a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio; and
signaling the priority level to a second radio, wherein the first and second radios are co-located and share a resource;
wherein setting a priority level of slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio comprises:
determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio; and
setting a priority level based on the likelihood:
wherein the slot comprises a sniff anchor point and wherein determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio comprises:
determining a likelihood that a peer of the first radio will be active at the sniff anchor point;
wherein the determination of a likelihood that a peer of the first radio will be active at the sniff anchor point is based on at least a sniff subrate used by the peer.
9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the determination of a likelihood that a peer of the first radio will be active at the sniff anchor point is based on at least analysis of traffic between the first radio and the peer at one or more previous sniff anchor points.
10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the slot comprises a sniff anchor point.
11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the priority level is set based on both a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio and a traffic type associated with the slot.
12. An apparatus comprising a radio, the radio comprising:
a prediction module arranged to set a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by the radio; and
an output to a signaling link arranged to signal the priority level to a co-located radio, wherein the radio and the co-located radio share a resource;
wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot, the radio further comprises a classifier and wherein the prediction module is arranged to use an output from the classifier to determine the likelihood that the re-transmission slot will be required by the radio.
13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , further comprising the co-located radio and the signaling link between the radio and the co-located radio.
14. One or more tangible non-transitory processor-readable media with processor-executable instructions for performing a method comprising: setting a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio; and signaling the priority level to a second radio, wherein the first and second radios are co-located and share a resource, wherein setting a priority level of slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio comprises: determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio; and setting a priority level based on the likelihood; wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot and wherein determining a likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio comprises: computing a metric, the metric comprising one of a number of re-transmission slots used in a defined period and a number of failures in a primary transmission slot.
15. A method comprising: setting a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio; and
signaling the priority level to a second radio, wherein the first and second radios are co-located and share a resource; wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot and wherein the likelihood is determined based on an output from a classifier associated with the first radio, and wherein determining the likelihood that the slot will be required by the first radio includes: computing a metric, the metric comprising one of a number of re-transmission slots used in a defined period and a number of failures in a primary transmission slot.
16. A method comprising: setting a priority level of a slot based on a determination of a likelihood that the slot will be required by a first radio; and signaling the priority level to a second radio, wherein the first and second radios are co-located and share a resource; wherein the slot comprises a re-transmission slot and wherein the likelihood is determined based on an output from a classifier associated with the first radio, wherein setting the priority level comprises: if the output from the classifier indicates that a channel used for a primary transmission slot is poor, setting a high priority level; and if the output from the classifier indicates that a channel used for a primary transmission slot is good, setting a low priority level, wherein the first radio comprises the classifier and a prediction module, and wherein the prediction module is arranged to use the output from the classifier to determine the likelihood that the re-transmission slot will be required by the first radio.