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EP-4738713-A1 - HETEROGENEOUS MULTI-CHANNEL SCANNING FOR WIRELESS DEVICES

EP4738713A1EP 4738713 A1EP4738713 A1EP 4738713A1EP-4738713-A1

Abstract

This application discloses wireless devices, multi-scan PHY blocks thereof, and associated methods. A multi-scan PHY block might include a first number of front-end blocks and a second number of back-end blocks. The multi-scan PHY block might enable detection by the front-end blocks of packets on a plurality of wireless channels and demodulation by the back-end blocks of the packets on the plurality of wireless channels without requiring a separate back-end block for each wireless channel.

Inventors

  • LEE, DONG-U
  • KIM, HEA JOUNG
  • Batra, Arun
  • SHAH, NIRAV
  • ZHOU, JUN
  • RADHAKRISHNAN, RATHNAKUMAR
  • MOU, Sheng
  • XU, SHENGYANG
  • MAK, SIUKAI
  • FORBES, MARCELLUS

Assignees

  • Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20251027

Claims (15)

  1. A wireless device comprising a multi-scan PHY block, the PHY block comprising: M front-end blocks, each comprising logic to detect modulated signals on each of a plurality of channels; N back-end blocks, each comprising logic to demodulate a signal modulated with a respective modulation, wherein M and N are integers and M is greater than N ; and a PHY controller comprising logic to manage communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks.
  2. The device of claim 1, wherein: the PHY block further comprises: J energy detectors; each of the front-end blocks comprises: at least one packet detector; and a front-end controller comprising logic to manage operation of that front-end block; J and M are integers, and J is greater than or equal to M ; and managing operation of a front-end block comprises: directing operation of the respective front-end block, based on information about energy detected by one or more of the energy detectors.
  3. The device of claim 2, wherein: J is equal to M ; and each of the front-end blocks comprises a respective one of the energy detectors.
  4. The device of claim 2 or claim 3, wherein each of the packet detectors comprises: logic to compute a likelihood that a preamble of a packet received on a particular channel has a particular modulation; logic to detect a modulation of the packet based at least in part on the likelihood; and logic to bias detection of the modulation toward the particular modulation, and/or wherein: each of the energy detectors comprises logic to generate information about signals received on a channel to which that energy detector is tuned; and the PHY controller further comprises logic to generate channel occupancy information about one or more channels based on the information about signals received on the one or more channels.
  5. The device of one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each of the plurality of back-end blocks further comprises: a packet filter and/or wherein: the logic to demodulate the signal comprises logic to demodulate the signal bit-by-bit; and each of the plurality of back-end blocks further comprises: logic to evaluate, while demodulating the signal, one or more demodulated bits against one or more bitmask conditions; and logic to determine, based on an evaluation of the one or more demodulated bits against the one or more bitmask conditions, whether to terminate demodulation of the signal before demodulating an entire wireless packet, based at least in part on whether the one or more demodulated bits satisfies one or more termination conditions.
  6. The device of one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: demodulating the modulated signal recovers a transmitted frame from a wireless packet; each of the plurality of back-end blocks further comprises: logic to identify a set of data associated with the recovered frame, the set of data comprising: one or more tags in the recovered frame; or at least a portion of one or more fields from of the recovered frame; and logic to determine, based on the identified set of data, whether to forward the recovered frame to a MAC interface, and/or wherein the logic to manage communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks comprises: logic to receive, from a first front-end block, an indication of a signal having a first modulation; and logic to assign, based at least in part on the indication, the first front-end block to a first back-end block configured to receive signals having the first modulation.
  7. The device of one of claims 1 to 6, wherein managing communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks comprises: detecting signals on two or more channels; and handling a demodulation contention resulting from detected signals.
  8. The device of claim 7, wherein: handling the demodulation contention comprises: receiving a first beacon on a first channel; and determining one or more arrival windows for the first channel based on estimated times of arrival of one or more subsequent beacons on the first channel; deprioritizing the first channel during the one or more arrival windows; and causing a back-end block to demodulate one or more second beacons arriving on one or more second channels during the one or more arrival windows, and/or wherein: handling the demodulation contention comprises: causing a back-end block to demodulate a first signal; and storing a second one or more signals in a buffer while the back-end block demodulates the first overlapping signal; and causing the back-end block to demodulate the second one or more signals after the back-end block has demodulated the first signal.
  9. A method, comprising: detecting, with a front-end block of a PHY block of a wireless device, one or more signals on a plurality of channels, the PHY block comprising: M front-end blocks, each configured to detect signals on each of the plurality of channels; N back-end blocks, each comprising logic to demodulate a signal modulated with a respective modulation, wherein M and N are integers and M is greater than N ; and a PHY controller; managing, with the PHY controller, communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks; and demodulating, with one of the back-end blocks, at least one of the one or more signals.
  10. The method of claim 9, wherein: the PHY block comprises: J energy detectors; and each of the front-end blocks comprises: at least one packet detector; and a front-end controller; J and M are integers, and J is greater than or equal to M ; and the method further comprises: directing, with each of the front-end controllers, operation of a respective front-end block, based on information about energy detected by one or more of the energy detectors.
  11. The method of claim 9 or claim 10, wherein: demodulating at least one of the one or more signals comprises demodulating the signal bit-by-bit; each of the back-end blocks comprises a packet filter, and the method further comprises: evaluating, with the packet filter and while demodulating the signal, one or more demodulated bits against one or more bitmask conditions; and determining, based on an evaluation of the one or more demodulated bits against the one or more bitmask conditions, whether to terminate demodulation of the signal before demodulating an entire wireless packet.
  12. The method of one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: demodulating the modulated signal recovers a transmitted frame from a wireless packet; and the method further comprises: identifying a set of data associated with the recovered frame, the set of data comprising: one or more tags in the recovered frame; or at least a portion of one or more fields from of the recovered frame; and determining, based on the identified set of data, whether to forward the recovered frame to a MAC interface.
  13. The method of one of claims 9 to 12, wherein managing communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks comprises: receiving, by the PHY controller and from a first front-end block, an indication of a signal having a first modulation; and assigning, by the PHY controller and based at least in part on the indication, the first front-end block to a first back-end block configured to receive signals having the first modulation, and/or wherein managing communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks comprises: receiving a first beacon on a first channel; and determining one or more arrival windows for the first channel based on estimated times of arrival of one or more subsequent beacons on the first channel; deprioritizing the first channel during the one or more arrival windows; and causing a back-end block to demodulate one or more second beacons arriving on one or more second channels during the one or more arrival window.
  14. The method of one of claims 9 to 13, wherein managing communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks comprises: causing a back-end block to demodulate a first signal; storing a second one or more signals in a buffer while the back-end block demodulates the first signal; and causing the back-end block to demodulate the second one or more signals after the back-end block has demodulated the first signal.
  15. A multi-scan PHY block of a wireless device, the multi-scan PHY block comprising: M front-end blocks, each comprising: a detector comprising logic to detect signals on each of a plurality of channels, wherein detecting a signal on a channel comprises: detecting energy the channel; and sensing, in response to detecting energy on the channel, a modulation of a carrier signal on the channel; N back-end blocks, each comprising: a packet filter; and logic to demodulate a signal modulated having one of the plurality of modulations; and wherein demodulating a signal comprises: demodulating the signal bit-by-bit; evaluating, while demodulating the signal, one or more demodulated bits against one or more bitmask conditions; and logic to determine, based on an evaluation of the one or more demodulated bits against the one or more bitmask conditions, whether to terminate demodulation of the signal before demodulating an entire frame; a PHY controller comprising: logic to manage communications between the front-end blocks and the back-end blocks, comprising: logic to receive, from a first front-end block, an indication of a signal having a first modulation; and logic to assign, based at least in part on the indication, the first front-end block to a first back-end block configured to receive signals having the first modulation; wherein M and N are integers and M is greater than N.

Description

Technical Field This disclosure relates generally to wireless devices and more specifically to wireless devices having a multi-channel scanning PHY block. Background In wireless systems, including but not limited to Wi-Fi systems, access points (APs) typically transmit beacons to neighboring devices. These beacons can be used for network discovery; roaming, e.g., switching to a different AP with a stronger received signal strength indicator (RSSI); indoor and/or outdoor location services, e.g., using the beacons' RSSIs, time-of-arrivals, and/or angle-of-arrivals, and the like. APs generally transmit beacons for various purposes (e.g., to allow wireless devices such as phones, computers, etc. to discover and connect to a wireless network), and beacons often are transmitted (e.g., by different APs in proximity to one another) on different channels. Traditional wireless devices with single-channel radios have to scan beacons on multiple channels in a time-multiplexed manner, resulting in slow scan times, impacting the quality of such services. Multi-channel radios enable the potential of concurrent scanning, but conventional implementations of multi-channel radios generally involves individual copies of receivers for each channel, which can increase the area of the PHY block and/or hardware costs. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a PHY block of a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a PHY block of a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of performing multi-channel scanning in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 4A is a block diagram showing certain components of a PHY block of a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments.Figs. 4B and 4C are block diagrams illustrating front-end blocks in accordance with various embodiments.Fig. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method demodulating a signal accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 6 illustrates a wireless frame in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of handling a demodulation contention in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 8 is a timing diagram that illustrates a technique for handling a demodulation contention using channel deprioritization in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 9 is a block diagram of a PHY block with a buffer in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 10 is a timing diagram illustrating a technique of buffering a signal to handle a demodulation contention in accordance with some embodiments.Fig. 11 is a block diagram of a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments. Detailed Description In a set of embodiments, a PHY block of a wireless device includes multiple front-end blocks (FE) multiplexed independently to multiple back-end blocks (BE). In a general sense, each FE includes a packet detector, and each BE includes a demodulator. In an aspect of some embodiments, each of the FEs can detect packets on any of a plurality of channels across a wireless spectrum (e.g., one or more of the typical Wi-Fi spectra, such as the 2.4 GHz band (IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax), 5 GHz band (IEEE 802.11a/n/ac/ax), 6 GHz band (IEEE 802.11a/n/ac/ax), etc., and can detect packets on signals with different modulations, e.g., orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation and direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation. In another aspect of some embodiments, each of the BEs can demodulate signals having at least one such modulation. As used herein, the term "wireless device" refers to any device that is capable of sending or receiving data using wireless signals. Examples include, without limitation, devices with Wi-Fi capabilities, such as wireless phones, tablet computers, personal computers (including but not limited to laptop computers), Wi-Fi-enabled peripherals and devices (including but not limited to smart home devices); devices with cellular capabilities, including without limitation the devices above, and any other devices with any sort of wireless capability. Although many of the examples in this disclosure refer to Wi-Fi devices for illustrative purposes, a skilled artisan will appreciate that embodiments are not limited to these examples. As used herein, the terms "PHY" and "PHY block" refer to a Physical Layer section of a wireless device that is responsible for transmitting and receiving raw data over a wireless medium, such as radio waves. In networking, the PHY layer is the lowest layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and is responsible for defining the physical means of transmitting data between devices. In some embodiments, the PHY block is implemented using hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. The PHY block can be integrated into a single chip or module, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN, also referred to herein as Wi-Fi, including but not limited to IEEE 802.11 protocols) chip or a cellular modem. In