U.S. patent application number 13/732837 was filed with the patent office on 2013-05-16 for wireless docking station.
This patent application is currently assigned to WILOCITY, LTD.. The applicant listed for this patent is WILOCITY, LTD.. Invention is credited to Daniel Rettig, Tal Tamir.
Application Number | 20130124762 13/732837 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39686835 |
Filed Date | 2013-05-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130124762 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Tamir; Tal ; et al. |
May 16, 2013 |
WIRELESS DOCKING STATION
Abstract
A wireless communication system for enabling a wireless
connection between a computing device and a plurality of peripheral
devices is provided. The system comprises a first wireless
transceiver connected to a host bridge, wherein the host bridge is
coupled to a central processing unit of the computing device; and a
wireless docketing apparatus that communicates with the host bridge
over a wireless interconnect bus, wherein the wireless docketing
apparatus is coupled to a plurality of peripheral devices, thereby
enabling the wireless connection between the computing device and
the plurality of peripheral devices.
Inventors: |
Tamir; Tal; (Sunnyvale,
CA) ; Rettig; Daniel; (Karkur, IL) |
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Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
WILOCITY, LTD.; |
Caesarea |
|
IL |
|
|
Assignee: |
WILOCITY, LTD.
Caesarea
IL
|
Family ID: |
39686835 |
Appl. No.: |
13/732837 |
Filed: |
January 2, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11964715 |
Dec 27, 2007 |
8374157 |
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13732837 |
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60889379 |
Feb 12, 2007 |
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60938190 |
May 16, 2007 |
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60950691 |
Jul 19, 2007 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
710/62 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 1/1632 20130101;
G06F 13/102 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
710/62 |
International
Class: |
G06F 13/10 20060101
G06F013/10 |
Claims
1. A wireless communication system for enabling a wireless
connection between a computing device and a plurality of peripheral
devices, comprising: a first wireless transceiver connected to a
host bridge, wherein the host bridge is coupled to a central
processing unit of the computing device; and a wireless docketing
apparatus that communicates with the host bridge over a wireless
interconnect bus, wherein the wireless docketing apparatus is
coupled to a plurality of peripheral devices, thereby enabling the
wireless connection between the computing device and the plurality
of peripheral devices.
2. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the
wireless docketing apparatus includes a second wireless transceiver
for communicating with the first wireless transceiver over a
wireless medium; a switch coupled to the wireless transceiver and
to a plurality of input/output (I/O) controllers for sharing a
connection point to the host bridge with the plurality of
peripheral devices; and a plurality of I/O controllers for
communicating with one or more of the plurality of the peripheral
devices.
3. The wireless communication system of claim 2, wherein each of
the plurality of I/O controllers communicates with a respective
peripheral device using a standard peripheral connection respective
of the peripheral device.
4. The wireless communication system of claim 3, wherein the
wireless interconnect bus is at least a wireless peripheral
component interconnect express (PCIe) bus.
5. The wireless communication system of claim 3, wherein the
standard peripheral connection between a peripheral device and an
I/O controller comprises at least one of: a PCIe connection, a USB
connection, a parallel connection, a RS232 serial connection, a
PS/2-style mouse connection, a keyboard connection, an audio like
connection, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)
connection, a video graphics array (VGA) connection, a digital
visual interface (DVI) connection, and a high-definition multimedia
interface (HDMI) like connection.
6. The wireless communication system of claim 3, wherein each of
the first and the second wireless transceivers controls and manages
access to the wireless interconnect bus.
7. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein each of
the first and the second wireless transceivers operates in a full
duplex mode.
8. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
each of the first and the second wireless transceivers operates in
a half-full duplex mode.
9. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
the second wireless transceiver is further configured to establish
a link between the wireless docking apparatus and the computing
device over the wireless peripheral component interconnect express
bus for wirelessly transferring data between the plurality of
peripheral devices and the host bridge.
10. The wireless docking communication system of claim 7, wherein
each of the first and the second wireless transceivers is a
wireless data modem.
11. The wireless docking communication system of claim 8, wherein
the wireless data modem is at least one of: an orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) modem, a single-carrier modem, and a
multi-carrier modem.
12. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
the first wireless transceiver implements at least a layered
protocol of the wireless interconnect bus.
13. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
the first wireless transceiver is further configured to synchronize
between the wireless docking apparatus and the computing
device.
14. The wireless docking communication system of claim 11, wherein
the first wireless transceiver is further configured to: send an
association key by the wireless docking apparatus, wherein the
association key includes a unique identification (ID) number; send
a challenge connection key to the wireless docking apparatus in
response to a challenge connection key received from the wireless
docking apparatus; and establish a connection with the wireless
docking apparatus upon reception of a session key by the wireless
docking apparatus.
15. The wireless docking communication system of claim 14, wherein
the first wireless transceiver is further configured to:
periodically send the association key upon receiving a beacon
transmitted by the second wireless transceiver.
16. The wireless docking communication system of claim 15, wherein
the challenge connection key, the association key and the session
key are pre-determined using a pairing process.
17. The wireless docking communication system of claim 15, wherein
the challenge connection key, the association key and the session
key are pre-determined and encrypted.
18. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
the computing device comprises at least one of: a laptop computer,
a tablet computer, a smart phone, a notebook computer, a media
player, a mobile phone, and a personal digital assistant (PDA).
19. The wireless docking communication system of claim 1, wherein
each of the plurality of peripheral devices is at least one of: a
monitor, a keyboard, a pointing device, a mouse, a storage device,
a speaker, a microphone, a modem, a CD player, and a DVD player.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of a U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/964,715 filed on Dec. 27, 2007, now
allowed, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application
No. 60/950,691, filed on Jul. 19, 2007, U.S. Provisional
Application No. 60/938,190 filed May 16, 2007, and U.S. Provisional
Application No. 60/889,379 filed Feb. 12, 2007. The contents of
which are herein incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates generally to peripheral component
interconnect buses, and more particularly to interconnect buses
over a wireless medium.
BACKGROUND
[0003] As technology has evolved the functionality of mobile
devices, such as laptops computers, cellular phones, personal
digital assistants (PDAs), and media players, has become
correspondingly more robust. Such devices now offer capabilities
that were once the exclusive domain of personal computers (PCs). In
fact, some of these mobile devices now resemble small, low-end PCs
with wireless access to data networks, including the Internet.
[0004] Unlike desktops or portable computers, hand-held devices and
other wireless communication devices typically fail to include a
keyboard, a large display, a mouse, a printer, or any other
peripheral. In some instances such peripherals do exist but are
either cumbersome or too small for effective use. Such devices may
utilize a docking station or a port replicator to attach a standard
set of peripheral devices to the computing platform. A physical
connection is made between the hand-held device and the docking
station, at which time the docking station provides the necessary
ports to connect to those peripherals.
[0005] The primary purpose of replicators or docking stations is to
provide a fast and convenient mechanism to allow the hand-held
device to attach or detach from peripheral devices. This is
achieved by plugging the hand-held device into the docking station,
however it is not necessary to physically connect and disconnect
each of the peripheral devices from the hand-held device.
[0006] With the emergence of wireless technologies, hardwired
docking station connections are replaced with a wireless
connection, typically by means of an ultra-wideband (UWB)
connection. Examples for such wireless docking stations can be
found, for example, in US patent application Nos. 2005/0246470,
2006/0061963, and 2006/0061963, incorporated herein by reference
for the useful understanding of the background of the
invention.
[0007] The solutions in the above-cited applications enable
wireless connectivity between a hand-held device and its respective
peripherals by providing a wireless computer docking system.
Specifically, a hand-held device is equipped with a UWB wireless
transceiver to form a wireless connection with UWB-enabled
peripheral devices without the need for a physical docking station.
That is, these solutions are based on an UWB link that emulates an
undefined type of input/output (I/O) bus.
[0008] Such architectures introduce major drawbacks that limit the
performance of the hand-held device. For example, the UWB link
requires a dedicated-controller to allow the I/O bus to operate
with different peripheral standards. It also requires the
installation of dedicated software to map peripheral interfaces to
the I/O bus. In addition, the UWB link multiplexes between
peripheral devices in order to transfer data on a relatively small
bandwidth.
[0009] It would be therefore advantageous to provide a solution
that would provide a wireless docking system that overcomes the
drawbacks of prior art solutions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] Various embodiments are particularly pointed out and
distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the
specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and
advantages of various embodiments described herein will be apparent
from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with
the accompanying drawings.
[0011] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a typical architecture of a
hand-held device useful in describing the principles of the
invention;
[0012] FIG. 2 is an illustration of a typical architecture of a
hand-held device that includes a wireless interconnect bus
constructed useful for explaining certain exemplary embodiments of
the invention;
[0013] FIG. 3 is a non-limiting block diagram of a wireless docking
station useful for explaining certain exemplary embodiments of the
invention; and
[0014] FIG. 4 is a non-limiting and exemplary diagram that
describes the dock-in process realized in accordance with the
principles of an embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] The embodiments disclosed are only examples of the many
possible advantageous uses and implementations of the innovative
teachings presented herein. In general, statements made in the
specification of the present application do not necessarily limit
any of the various claimed inventions. Moreover, some statements
may apply to some inventive features but not to others. In general,
unless otherwise indicated, singular elements may be in plural and
vice versa with no loss of generality. In the drawings, like
numerals refer to like parts through several views.
[0016] To overcome the shortcomings of the prior-art docking
stations or port replicators, a wireless docking station is
provided that allows the wireless connection between a hand-held
computing device and a plurality of peripheral devices by unwiring
the main computing bus of the hand-held device. The hand-held
device may be, but is not limited to, a personal computer, a laptop
computer, a notebook computer, a media player, a mobile phone, a
personal digital assistant (PDA), and the likes.
[0017] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary illustration of a typical
architecture 100 of a hand-held computing device useful for
describing the principles of the invention. The architecture 100 is
based on a main computing bus which is, for example, a peripheral
component interconnect express (PCIe) bus. A host bridge 110 is
coupled to endpoints 120, a central processing unit (CPU) 130, a
memory 140, and a switch 150. Typically, the host bridge 110 and
the switch 150 are referred to as a "north bridge" and a "south
bridge" respectively. The peripheral components are connected
through endpoints 120. Multiple point-to-point connections are
accomplished by the switch 150, which provides the fanout for the
I/O bus. The switch 150 provides peer-to-peer communication between
different endpoints 120. That is, traffic between switch 150 and
endpoints 120 that does not involve cache-coherent memory
transfers, is not forwarded to the host bridge 110. The switch 150
is shown as a separate logical element but it could be integrated
into the host bridge 110.
[0018] The wireless connection between a hand-held device and
respective peripherals is achieved by unwiring the "north bridge"
from the "south bridge". In accordance with principles of the
invention this is achieved by means of a wireless interconnect bus,
for example, a wireless PCIe bus. Examples for such buses may be
found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,050,290 entitled "A Wireless Interconnect
Bus" and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/021,290 "A
Distributed Interconnect Bus". Both applications are assigned to
common assignee and which are hereby incorporated herein, in their
entirety, by reference thereto.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows an illustration of a typical architecture 200
of a hand-held computing device that includes a wireless
interconnect bus 210. The wireless interconnect bus 210 includes a
first transceiver 220 which is coupled to a host bridge 230 (the
"north bridge") and a second transceiver 240 coupled to a switch
250 (the "south bridge"). The host bridge 230 identifies the
endpoints 260 connected to the switch 250 as a standard endpoint.
That is, there is no need to install specific software in order to
recognize and communicate with peripherals coupled to the endpoints
260. Specifically, the communication protocols between the switch
250 and endpoints 260 may be any of a high-definition multimedia
interface (HDMI), a digital visual interface (DVI), a serial
advanced technology attachment (SATA), a video graphics array
(VGA), a universal serial bus (USB), PCIe, Bluetooth and the
likes.
[0020] In one embodiment of the invention the wireless interconnect
bus 210 emulates a wireless PCI Express (wPCIe.TM.) bus. In this
embodiment the link between the first transceiver 220 and a second
transceiver 240 aggregates an unbound number of PCIe lanes with a
transfer data rate of 2.5 Gb/s per lane over an unlicensed
frequency band like 57-64 GHz or 5-6 GHz. In an exemplary
embodiment the number of aggregated lanes is 32. It would be
apparent to a person skilled in the art that the bandwidth of the
aggregated lanes is sufficient to wirelessly transfer data from or
to peripherals without multiplexing between them.
[0021] FIG. 3 shows a non-limiting block diagram of a wireless
docking station 300 in accordance with an embodiment of the
invention. The docking station 300 includes a wireless transceiver
310 coupled to a switch 320, and a plurality of input/output (I/O)
controllers 330 that connect to the switch 320. The wireless
transceiver 310 receives and transmits wireless signals from and to
a hand-held device, which communicates using the transceiver 220.
In one embodiment the wireless signals are preferably in a form of
symbols. The wireless transceiver 310 controls and manages the
access to the wireless link in either a full-duplex or half-duplex
mode of operation. Furthermore, the wireless transceiver 310
establishes the link between the docking station 300 and the
hand-held device and acts as a medium access controller (MAC)
layer. The wireless transceiver 310 is also capable of
reconstructing data from the received symbols.
[0022] To perform the tasks mentioned above the wireless
transceiver 310 preferably includes a wireless receiver and
wireless transmitter (not shown) that together implement a wireless
modem, such as an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
modem, a single-carrier modem, a multi-carrier modem, and the
likes. Furthermore, the wireless receiver and wireless transmitter
can implement sophisticated communication techniques, such as
multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), beam forming, advanced
coding, space time block codes, and so on. The wireless transceiver
310 further supports a layered protocol of the wireless
interconnect bus. Such protocol includes at least a wireless
physical (WPHY) layer 410, a wireless adaptation layer 420, a data
link layer 430, and a transaction layer 440. The operation of this
layered protocol is descried in detail in the 60/938,190
provisional application mentioned above.
[0023] The data constructed by the wireless transceiver 310 is fed
to the switch 320 which may be operated in accordance to any
standards that includes, but is not limited to, USB3, PCIe, PCIe
second generation, Hypertransport, Infiniband, and the like. In
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention the docking
station 300 may include a bridge for transforming data from a first
protocol (e.g., a PCIe) to a second protocol (e.g., a PCI). The I/O
controllers 330 interface between peripheral devices connected to
the docking station 300 and the hand-held device. The I/O
controllers 330 may communicate with any type of peripheral device
including, but not limited to, a monitor, a keyboard, a pointing
device, a mouse, a storage device, a speaker, a microphone, a
modem, a compact disk (CD) player, a digital video disc (DVD)
player, a projector, and the likes.
[0024] The connections between the peripheral devices and the I/O
controllers 330 may be, but are not limited to, PCIe, USB1.1,
USB2.0, parallel, RS232 serial, PS/2-style mouse, keyboard
connector audio like connection, SATA, VGA, DVI, HDMI-like monitor
connections, and others.
[0025] It would be apparent to a person skilled in the art that as
the I/O controllers 330 manages the communication between the
peripherals and the hand-held device there is no need to install
dedicated software to map standard peripheral interfaces to a
format of a dedicated bus.
[0026] FIG. 4 shows a non-limiting and exemplary diagram 400
describing the dock-in process in accordance with principles of an
exemplary embodiment of the invention. The dock-in process refers
to wireless connecting of a hand-held computing device to the
docking station 300. Such connection is achieved if a hand-held
device is placed in proximity of a docking station 300. At S410 the
docking station 300 periodically transmits beacons to indicate that
it is available. The beacons are transmitted on one or more
specific allocated channels. The hand-held device scans the
allocated channel(s) to detect beacons transmitted by the docking
station 300. At S420, the hand-held device sends an association
request key to the docking station 300 with a unique identification
(ID) number. In response, at S430, the docking station 300 sends a
challenge connection key. At S440 the hand-held device responds
with its challenge connection key. At S450 the docking station 300
may accept or reject the association with the hand-held device by
sending a response that includes a session key. If the session key
is accepted a connection is established between the docking station
300 and the hand-held device. The keys used for challenge,
association, and session are pre-determined using a pairing process
which is performed during the initialization of the docking station
and hand-held device. These keys are encrypted using, for example,
an advanced encryption standard (AES) encryption technique, and the
likes.
[0027] In order to "dock-out", i.e., disconnecting the hand-held
device from the docking station, the hand-held device sends a
dock-out request signal. As a result, the docking station replies
with undocked acknowledge signal. Thereafter, the connection
session is disconnected and the first transceiver is switched to a
scanning mode. The docking out process also applies if the
hand-held device just moves out of "docking range."
[0028] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention
the bus connecting the hand-held device and the docking station is
a wireless PCI express bus. In this embodiment the dock-in and
dock-out processes can be implemented as "hot" plug-in and
plug-out. That is, connecting or disconnecting the hand-held device
while is still operating. This can be performed without the need to
install dedicated software, hardware or combination therefore
either in the hand-held devices of the docking station.
[0029] It is important to note that these embodiments are only
examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings
herein. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive
features but not to others. In general, unless otherwise indicated,
it is to be understood that singular elements may be in plural and
vice versa with no loss of generality.
[0030] The embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as a
combination of hardware, firmware and software and because some of
the constituent system components and methods depicted in the
accompanying drawings may be implemented in software, the actual
connections between the system components or the process function
blocks may differ depending upon the manner in which the invention
is programmed. The software may be embodied on a computer readable
medium.
[0031] The functions of the various elements shown in the figures
may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as
hardware capable of executing appropriate software. When provided
by a processor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated
processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of
individual processors, some of which may be shared. Explicit use of
the term "processor" or "controller" should not be construed to
refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and
may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal
processor hardware, ROM, RAM, and non-volatile storage.
[0032] Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be
included. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are
conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the
operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the
interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even
manually, the particular technique being selectable by the
implementer as more specifically understood from the context.
[0033] All examples and conditional language recited herein are
intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in
understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts
contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are to be
construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited
examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting
principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as
specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both
structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is
intended that such equivalents include both currently known
equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e.,
any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless
of structure.
* * * * *