Puncturing Request Signaling for Facilitating BT-BLE Co-Existence with Wi-Fi

1 . A method for operating a co-located device including a wireless local area network (WLAN) side with a WLAN radio and a wireless personal area network (WPAN) side with a WPAN radio, the method comprising:

using the WPAN side notifying WLAN side of latency sensitive traffic (LST) pending for the WPAN radio;

using the WLAN side identifying a number of punctured sub-channels in a plurality of channels used in a basic service set (BSS) for WLAN communications with the WLAN radio;

instructing the WPAN side over which of the number of punctured sub-channels to transmit using the WPAN radio; and

using the WPAN radio communicating the LST over at least some of the number of punctured sub-channels to reduce interference between the WPAN radio and WLAN communications in the BSS.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the WLAN radio is a Wi-Fi radio operable to use an IEEE 802.11 packet-based protocol supporting preamble puncturing, and wherein the WPAN radio is an unlicensed, short-range Bluetooth (BT), Bluetooth low-energy (BLE), narrow-band (NB) or ultra-wideband (UWB) radio, operable to communicate by adaptive frequency hopping in the punctured sub-channels.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the number of punctured sub-channels comprises using the Wi-Fi radio, negotiating with an access point (AP) in the BSS to identify the number of punctured sub-channels using a Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) used in the BSS.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the negotiation with the AP includes one or more of a number sub-channels to be punctured, a bandwidth for the LST or identifies one or more specific sub-channels to be punctured.

5 . The method of claim 3 wherein the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap is included in an association response, re-association response or probe response sent by the AP to the co-located device in response to the negotiation.

6 . The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the number of punctured sub-channels comprises using the Wi-Fi radio to receive a beacon transmitted from an access point (AP) in the BSS to the co-located device, the beacon including a Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU).

7 . The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the number of punctured sub-channels comprises using the Wi-Fi radio to observe a Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted from an access point (AP) in the BSS to a station (STA) in the BSS.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein each of the number of punctured sub-channels have a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz, the each of the number of channels have a bandwidth of 80, 160 or 320 MHz, and wherein the number of punctured sub-channels includes adjacent sub-channels to provide concurrently punctured sub-channels having bandwidths of 40, 80 or 120 MHz.

9 . A co-located device comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) side including a WLAN radio;

a wireless personal area network (WPAN) side including a WPAN radio; and

a microcontroller operable to execute machine readable instructions that, when executed by the microcontroller:

cause WPAN side to notify the WLAN side of latency sensitive traffic (LST) for the WPAN radio;

cause the WLAN side to identify and communicate to the WPAN side a number of punctured sub-channels in a plurality of channels used in a basic service set (BSS) to communicate with the WLAN radio; and

cause the WPAN radio to transmit and receive using adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) over the number of punctured sub-channels to eliminate interference between the WPAN radio and concurrent communications with the WLAN radio in the BSS.

10 . The co-located device of claim 9 wherein the WLAN radio is a Wi-Fi radio operable to use an IEEE 802.11 packet-based protocol supporting preamble puncturing, and wherein the WPAN radio is an unlicensed, short-range Bluetooth (BT) or Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) radio, operable to communicate using adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) in the punctured sub-channels.

11 . The co-located device of claim 10 wherein the machine readable instructions comprise instructions that cause the WLAN side to identify the number of punctured sub-channels by using the Wi-Fi radio, transmitting a request to an access point (AP) in the BSS to identify the number of punctured sub-channels using a Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) used in the BSS.

12 . The wireless device of claim 11 wherein the request to the AP specifies one or more of a number sub-channels to be punctured, or a bandwidth for the LST.

13 . The co-located device of claim 11 wherein the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap is included in an association response, re-association response or probe response sent by the AP to the co-located device in response to the request.

14 . The co-located device of claim 11 wherein the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap is included in a beacon transmitted from the AP in the BSS to the co-located device.

15 . The co-located device of claim 11 wherein the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap is included in a PPDU transmitted from the AP to a station (STA) in the BSS and observed using the Wi-Fi radio.

16 . A method for operating a co-located device including a Wi-Fi side with a Wi-Fi radio and a Bluetooth (BT) side with a BT radio, the method comprising:

using the BT side notifying Wi-Fi side of latency sensitive traffic (LST) for the BT radio;

using the WI-FI side identifying a number of punctured sub-channels in a plurality of channels used in a basic service set (BSS) to communicate with the WI-FI radio;

instructing the BT side over which of the number of punctured sub-channels to transmit using the BT radio; and

using the BT radio transmitting the LST over the number of punctured sub-channels using adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) to eliminate interference between the BT radio and concurrent communications between the WI-FI radio and an access point (AP) in the BSS.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the Wi-Fi radio is operable to use an IEEE 802.11 packet-based protocol supporting preamble puncturing, and identifying the number of punctured sub-channels comprises using the Wi-Fi radio, transmitting a request to the AP to identify the number of punctured sub-channels using a Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) used in the BSS.

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the request to the AP specifies one or more of a number sub-channels to be punctured, or a bandwidth for the LST.

19 . The method of claim 17 wherein the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap is included in an association response, re-association response or probe response sent by the AP to the co-located device in response to the request.

20 . The method of claim 17 wherein identifying the number of punctured sub-channels comprises using the Wi-Fi radio to observe the Punctured Sub-channel Bitmap in a PPDU transmitted from the AP to a station (STA) in the BSS.