DE102017213630A1 - A method for waking up a receiver by a transmitter using the Bluetooth low energy radio technology - Google Patents

Abstract

In order to propose a method for initiating a radio link between a transmitter and a receiver by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology, which can be used with a transmitter in the form of a mobile terminal both for waking the receiver as well as for data communication with the receiver, it is proposed from the transmitter to the receiver to be transmitted message in addition to the sender address and receiver address to add additional information regarding the radio technology to be used.

Description

The invention relates to a method and a data communication device for waking a receiver by a transmitter by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology.

State of the art

In the prior art so-called multi-function keys are known, by means of which, for example, the departure test for a vehicle, in particular a truck, can be performed. Such multifunction keys are typically based on near field radio, for example in the range of 433 MHz. Furthermore, the multifunction keys can also be used to wake up the vehicle, as all necessary control units of the vehicle have to function or have to be in operation for the downhill test.

It is a constant endeavor to keep the power consumption of installed in the vehicle control units with the engine off as low as possible in order to protect the batteries. Since data must be exchanged between the multifunction key and the control unit installed in the vehicle for downhill checks, the radio link should also have a range of at least 20 meters. Only then can the downhill test be carried out even if the driver is staying with the multi-function key, for example in the area behind the vehicle or behind a trailer of the vehicle.

Disclosure of the invention

Object of the present invention is to provide a method for waking a receiver by a transmitter using the Bluetooth low energy radio technology, or to wake up a installed in a vehicle controller, the method can be performed with a standard mobile terminal.

1. a) Absenden einer Nachricht durch den Sender, wobei die Nachricht eine Senderadresse des Senders und eine Empfängeradresse des anzusprechenden Empfängers und eine zusätzliche Information beinhaltet; und
2. b) Empfangen der Nachricht durch den Empfänger; und
3. c) Ausführen einer Aktion vom Empfänger, ausgewählt und bestimmt in Abhängigkeit von der vom Sender übermittelten zusätzlichen Information.

According to the invention, a method for waking a receiver by a transmitter by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology is proposed for this purpose. The method has at least the following steps:

1. a) sending a message by the sender, the message including a sender address of the sender and a recipient address of the recipient to be addressed, and additional information; and
2. b) receiving the message by the recipient; and
3. c) performing an action by the receiver, selected and determined in dependence on the additional information transmitted by the transmitter.

By means of this method, for example, a control unit installed in a vehicle can be woken up by means of the transmitter.

The transmitter can be a stationary or mobile device. The transmitter is preferably a mobile terminal, for example a smartphone or a tablet. The receiver is usually arranged in a vehicle, for example in or on a control device in the vehicle.

In step c), for example, an Ethernet connection can be established to a control device within the vehicle, or to the outside to a server.

Preferably, a method is provided for initiating a radio connection between the receiver and the transmitter, wherein the receiver is first woken up by the transmitter based on the method described above, and in step c) or a further step the radio connection between the receiver and the transmitter is established , In this case, a radio technology is selected and determined for the radio connection by means of the additional information transmitted by the transmitter in step a).

Furthermore, it is provided that both the receiver and the transmitter are in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mode before and during the initiation of the radio connection. In BLE mode, the receiver is woken up by the transmitter. Subsequently, a radio connection is established in the radio technology, which was specified by means of the additional information in the BLE message from the sender.

The BLE radio technology is to be understood as the BLE mode or Bluetooth Smart Mode of the industry standard "Bluetooth". In particular, the invention refers to the Bluetooth standard from the specification 4.0 , Compared to the classic Bluetooth standard, BLE has significantly lower power consumption and therefore lower costs.

According to the method according to the invention, the transmitter wakes up the receiver and additionally determines the subsequent behavior of the receiver or predetermines the type of radio connection for it. Both are done while both transmitter and receiver are in BLE mode.

• - Connectable undirected advertising event (ADV_IND):
  • Mit dieser Nachricht wird allen BLE-Empfängern, die sich in Reichweite befinden, eine Advertising-Nachricht geschickt. Nach der Advertising-Nachricht kann dann ausgehend vom Empfänger eine BLE-Verbindung zwischen den Geräten aufgebaut werden.
• - Non-connectable undirected advertising event (ADV_NONCONN_IND):
  • Mit dieser Nachricht wird allen BLE-Empfängern, die sich in Reichweite befinden, eine Advertising-Nachricht geschickt. Der Empfänger dieser Nachricht soll keinen BLE-Verbindungsaufbauversuch starten.
• - Scannable undirected advertising event (ADV_SCAN_IND):
  • Mit dieser Nachricht wird allen BLE-Empfängern, die sich in Reichweite befinden, eine Advertising-Nachricht geschickt.
• - Connectable directed advertising event (ADV_DIRECT_IND):
  • Mit dieser Nachricht wird genau dem BLE-Empfänger, dessen BLE-Adresse in der Advertising-Nachricht enthalten ist, die Nachricht geschickt. Alle anderen Empfänger ignorieren diese Nachricht.

The BLE standard provides the following four BLE Advertising messages:

• - Connectable undirected advertising event (ADV_IND):
  • This message will send an advertising message to all BLE recipients in range. After the advertising message, a BLE connection between the devices can then be established starting from the recipient.
• - Non-connectable undirected advertising event (ADV_NONCONN_IND):
  • This message will send an advertising message to all BLE recipients in range. The recipient of this message should not start a BLE connection setup attempt.
• - Scannable undirected advertising event (ADV_SCAN_IND):
  • This message will send an advertising message to all BLE recipients in range.
• - Connectable directed advertising event (ADV_DIRECT_IND):
  • This message is used to send the message to exactly the BLE recipient whose BLE address is included in the Advertising message. All other recipients ignore this message.

In particular, the present invention relies on the BLE advertising message ADV_DIRECT_IND. According to the BLE standard, only the sender address and the recipient address are transmitted by the sender with this message. Only the BLE receiver with the corresponding BLE receiver address responds to this message. According to the present invention, this BLE advertising message ADV_DIRECT_IND is now extended by additional information. This additional information includes at least one command and / or data, whereby the receiver is informed of the radio technology to be used.

In order to address a particular device, for example to wake it up, the BLE advertising message ADV_DIRECT_IND is particularly suitable since this BLE advertising message contains the recipient address as well as the sender address. The two addresses can already be checked in the link layer of the Bluetooth / BLE chip without having to wake up the host chip. In contrast, to decrypt the data of the other BLE Advertising messages defined in the BLE standard, the host must be active. As a result, the power consumption increases, which is not desired according to the invention.

With the method, it is possible, expensive and separate devices, such as multifunction keys, by mobile devices, which are usually already in use for the departure of a truck, but also for the "wake-up" of the truck or provided for this purpose in the truck control unit to use.

With the method according to the invention, the truck or the control unit arranged in the truck can be specifically addressed by the transmitter. By this is meant that the sender can select exactly one vehicle or a special control unit and this can be awakened. After receiving the message transmitted by the transmitter, the receiver can set up a radio link between receiver and transmitter. The type of radio connection is specified according to the invention by means of the additional information contained in the message from the transmitter. It is therefore not set to a predetermined connection variant.

However, this is possible with the method provided according to the invention. Furthermore, the mobile terminal can be used as a transmitter both for waking up as well as for the subsequent data communication, for example the downhill test. Thus, no additional devices or transmitters are required for these two successive steps.

Preferably, in step c) the radio connection is started exclusively by the receiver with the receiver address transmitted by the transmitter in step a). Thus, only the addressed recipient with the transmitted recipient address is woken up.

The radio technology for the radio link between the transmitter and the receiver is preferably determined exclusively by the transmitter. This information is encoded by the additional information and communicated to the recipient. The type of radio connection or the radio technology to be used is not specified or determined or selected by the receiver.

• - BLE-Funkverbindung,
• - Bluetooth (BT)-Funkverbindung,
• - WiFi-Access Point, wobei der Empfänger den WiFi-Access Point bildet,
• - WiFi-Client, wobei der Empfänger einen WiFi-Client darstellt.

Furthermore, it is preferably provided that in step c) the radio connection is started directly in the wireless technology specified by the transmitter. It is therefore not necessarily provided that first and by default a BLE radio connection is established and then switched to a different radio technology. It is also preferably provided that command information is coded with the additional information, wherein the command information uniquely defines the radio technology to be used for the radio connection. Particularly preferably, the following radio techniques are provided:

• - BLE radio connection,
• Bluetooth (BT) radio link,
• - WiFi access point, where the receiver is the WiFi access point,
• - WiFi client, where the receiver is a WiFi client.

The command information can be several bytes or octets long. For example, the command information 2 Bytes long. With the command information, the radio technology to be used in the additional information, which is transmitted via the message from the sender to the receiver, encoded.

Furthermore, the additional information may include data. The data may be provided and transmitted in addition to the command information. For example, in the case of the WiFi client, the receiver can be told which WiFi access point the receiver should connect to. Also, instead of a command information only data could be transmitted. For example, the recipient could be told what is expected of him or what the recipient has to control.

The receiver preferably sets up a WiFi access point in step c), with additional or additional devices being able to connect to the receiver in addition to the transmitter. It is thus possible, for example, that the transmitter serves as a "door opener" for other devices which connect via the receiver or the WiFi access point set up by the receiver.

Preferably, the receiver activates a plurality of control devices in a vehicle based on the additional information in a step d). For this purpose, the receiver is assigned to a first control device in the vehicle. The sender wakes up this first controller. Subsequently, at least one further control unit in the vehicle can be activated via this first control unit. For example, this can be provided at least one further control device for carrying out the downhill test.

Furthermore, it is preferably provided that the additional information is a maximum of 26 bytes or a maximum of 26 octets long. Most preferably, the additional information is exactly 26 bytes long. The sender address and the receiver address are preferably 6 bytes and 6 octets, respectively. Thus, most preferably, the entire message transmitted by the transmitter to the receiver is at most 38 bytes, and most preferably exactly 38 bytes long. This is the same as the length of the other BLE standard advertising messages.

For further improvement, it is proposed that in this method the messages defined according to the invention are of the type: Advertising Event Type = Non-connectable Undirected Event (similar to ADV_NONCONN_IND). While the ADV_DIRECT_IND are direct and connectable and the ADV_NONCONN_IND are non-connectable for all but the messages defined according to the invention are directly but not konnektierbar.

This has the advantage that these messages are very well suited to wake up a system consisting of more than the BLE radio chip.

For further improvement, it is proposed that in this method, three new message types be defined for BLE Advertisement night views.

The first proposed BLE Advertisement message type is the Advertising Event Type ADV_DIRECT_INSTRUCTION_IND. This type is similar to the ADV_DIRECT_IND defined in the BLE standard, with the difference that in this message, information data additionally entered by the sender on the connection setup desired by the sender is contained.

The second proposed BLE Advertisement message type is the Advertising Event Type ADV_DIRECT_INSTRUCTION_DATA_IND. This type is similar to the ADV_DIRECT_IND defined in the BLE standard, with the difference that this message also contains information data for establishing the connection entered by the sender as well as supplementary information.

The third proposed BLE Advertisement message type is the Advertising Event Type ADV_DIRECT_DATA_IND. This type is similar to the ADV_DIRECT_IND defined in the BLE standard, with the difference that this message also contains information data entered by the sender.

The new proposed message types are provided by the BLE Advertising Event Type Non-connectable and Directed Event. The definition Non-connectable specifies that a BLE connection should not be established directly upon receipt of the message. The BLE Advertising Event Type Connectable and directed Event is also usable.

According to the invention, a data communication system is also provided for carrying out a method for initiating a radio link between a transmitter and a receiver by means of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio technology in accordance with a method described above.

The data communication system has for this purpose the transmitter and the receiver. The transmitter can be designed as a mobile terminal, for example as a smartphone or as a tablet. The receiver can be designed as a control unit or arranged on a control unit or integrated into a control unit. The control unit is assigned to or arranged in a vehicle, for example a truck. Furthermore, the data communication system can have further control devices, which can be activated by the first control device.

list of figures

• 1: ein Datenkommunikationssystem mit einem Sender und einem in einem Fahrzeug angeordneten Empfänger; und
• 2: wesentliche Schritte eines Verfahrens zum Initiieren einer Funkverbindung zwischen Sender und Empfänger; und
• 3a, 3b und 3c: unterschiedliche Konfigurationen einer vom Sender an den Empfänger zu übermittelnden Nachricht.

In the following the invention will be further explained by means of embodiments in the figures. Herein show:

• 1 a data communication system comprising a transmitter and a receiver disposed in a vehicle; and
• 2 essential steps of a method for initiating a radio link between transmitter and receiver; and
• 3a . 3b and 3c different configurations of a message to be transmitted from the sender to the receiver.

Detailed description of the drawings

1 shows a data communication system 100 with a transmitter 11 and a receiver 12 , The transmitter 11 is designed as a mobile terminal, namely as a smartphone or tablet. The recipient 12 is in a first controller 101 integrated. The first controller 101 is in a vehicle 200 , namely a truck, arranged. Furthermore, a second control device 102 in the vehicle 200 arranged. The second control unit 102 can from the first controller 101 to be activated.

The data communication system 100 serves to wake up the vehicle 200 or in the vehicle 200 arranged first control unit 101 , Furthermore, with the data communication system 100 also the departure exam are performed. For this purpose, the second control unit 102 after initiating the radio connection 10 between stations 11 and receiver 12 to be activated.

2 shows the essential steps of a method for initiating a radio link 10 between the transmitter 11 and the receiver 12 using the BLE wireless technology. In a first step S1 is from the sender 11 a message 13 to the recipient 12 Posted. The message indicates the sender address 14 , the recipient's address 15 as well as additional information 16 on.

In a second step S2 gets the message from the recipient 12 receive. Only the receiver reacts 12 with the corresponding recipient address 15 ,

In a third step S3 becomes the radio connection 10 between the transmitter 11 and the receiver 12 through the receiver 12 started, wherein the radio technology to be used for the radio link 10 by means of in step S1 from the transmitter 11 transmitted additional information 16 is selected.

In the 3a to 3c will be different configurations for the transmitter 11 to the recipient 12 message to be transmitted 13 shown. Common to all embodiments is that the message 13 both the sender address 14 as well as the recipient address 15 having. The additional information 16 can be like in 3a shown by way of example only have a command by which the receiver 12 the radio technology to be used is communicated.

3b shows a variant, wherein the additional information 16 has both a command and additional data. This allows the recipient 12 For example, in the event that this is to act as a WiFi client, be notified with which WiFi access point is the recipient 12 connect once the WiFi client has been activated.

3c shows a variant, wherein the additional information 16 contains only data and no command.

Claims (11)

A method for waking up a receiver (12) by a transmitter (11) by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology, the method having at least the following steps: a) sending a message (13) by the transmitter (11), the message (13) a transmitter address (14) of the transmitter (11) and a receiver address (15) of the receiver (12) to be addressed and additional information (16); and b) receiving the message (13) by the receiver (12); and c) performing an action by the receiver (12), selected and determined in dependence on the additional information (16) transmitted by the transmitter (11). Method for initiating a radio connection (10) between the transmitter (11) and the receiver (12) by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology, wherein the receiver (12) according to a method Claim 1 is woken up by the transmitter (11), characterized in that in step c) or a further step, the radio link (10) between the transmitter (11) and the receiver (12) is started, wherein a radio technology for the radio link (10) by means of the additional information (16) transmitted by the transmitter (11) in step a) is selected and determined. Method according to Claim 2 , characterized in that in step c) the radio connection is started exclusively by the receiver (12) with the receiver address (15) transmitted by the transmitter (11) in step a). Method according to Claim 2 or 3 , characterized in that the radio technology for the radio link (10) between the transmitter (11) and the receiver (12) determined solely by the transmitter (11), encoded by the additional information (16) and the receiver (12) is communicated. Method according to one of Claims 2 to 4 , characterized in that in step c) the radio connection (10) is started directly in the radio technology predetermined by the transmitter (11). Method according to one of Claims 2 to 5 , characterized in that with the additional information (16) a command information is encoded, wherein the command information uniquely defines the radio technology to be used for the radio link (10). Method according to one of Claims 2 to 6 , characterized in that the additional information (16) includes data. Method according to one of Claims 2 to 7 , characterized in that the receiver (12) in step c) sets up a WiFi access point and in addition to the transmitter (11) further devices connect to the receiver (12). Method according to one of Claims 2 to 8th , characterized in that the receiver (12) in a step d) based on the additional information (16) activates a plurality of control devices in a vehicle (200). Method according to one of Claims 2 to 9 , characterized in that the additional information (16) is a maximum of 26 bytes long. Data communication system (100) for carrying out a method for initiating a radio connection (10) between a transmitter (11) and a receiver (12) by means of the Bluetooth low energy radio technology according to one of the preceding claims.

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