CN112702722A

CN112702722A - Main bluetooth circuit and auxiliary bluetooth circuit in multi-member bluetooth device

Info

Publication number: CN112702722A
Application number: CN202010886485.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈奕铮; 黄冠中; 洪佳君; 林后唯
Original assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Current assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Priority date: 2019-10-03
Filing date: 2020-08-28
Publication date: 2021-04-23
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-28
Also published as: TWI758225B; TW202116084A; TWI739549B; CN112616136B; CN112615649A; CN112702723A; TWI739550B; TW202116085A; TW202147876A; CN112702724B; TW202145771A; TWI757831B; TWI774637B; TW202226805A; TW202116048A; CN112616137B; TW202116086A; CN112702722B; TWI783255B; TW202116083A

Abstract

The present application relates to a primary bluetooth circuit and a secondary bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device. The invention provides a main Bluetooth circuit and a sub Bluetooth circuit in a multi-member Bluetooth device for data transmission with a remote Bluetooth device. During the operation of the secondary Bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the primary Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device and transfers the received packets to the secondary Bluetooth circuit, and the secondary Bluetooth circuit does not sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, but under the condition that the data type of the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device is changed, the secondary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniff mode. During the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the main Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device.

Description

Main bluetooth circuit and auxiliary bluetooth circuit in multi-member bluetooth device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to bluetooth technology, and more particularly, to a master bluetooth circuit and a slave bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device capable of adaptively switching an operation mode according to a type of received packet data.

Background

A multi-member bluetooth device refers to a bluetooth device composed of a plurality of bluetooth circuits used in cooperation with each other, for example, paired bluetooth headsets, grouped bluetooth speakers, and the like. When the multi-member bluetooth device is connected to another bluetooth device (hereinafter referred to as a remote bluetooth device), the remote bluetooth device treats the multi-member bluetooth device as a single bluetooth device. When the traditional multi-member Bluetooth device is operated, one member circuit is set as a main Bluetooth circuit and is responsible for bidirectional data transmission with a remote Bluetooth device, and other member circuits are set as auxiliary Bluetooth circuits.

In practical applications, the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device to the multi-member bluetooth device may vary according to the current operating situation. For example, when the remote bluetooth device plays audio/video data using the multi-member bluetooth device, the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device to the multi-member bluetooth device are usually multimedia data with sequence number (sequence number). However, when the remote bluetooth device transmits data required for updating the firmware or program version to the multi-member bluetooth device, the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device to the multi-member bluetooth device are usually non-multimedia data (non-multimedia data) without serial codes, such as program data, update modules, and the like.

When the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device changes, if the matching operation between the master bluetooth circuit and the slave bluetooth circuit cannot be adjusted adaptively, the overall operation performance of the multi-member bluetooth device is easily reduced, the standby time is reduced, the inconvenience in use is caused, and even the specific operation (for example, firmware update) cannot be completed.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, how to avoid or reduce the influence of the data type change of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device on the multi-member bluetooth devices is a problem to be solved.

This specification provides embodiments of a master bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device. The multi-member bluetooth device is used for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device, and comprises a main bluetooth circuit and a sub bluetooth circuit which can be selectively operated in a sniffing mode or a relay mode, wherein the main bluetooth circuit comprises: a first bluetooth communication circuit; a first packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit; and a first control circuit coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit and the first packet parsing circuit; during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device through the first Bluetooth communication circuit and transmits the received packets to the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit through the first Bluetooth communication circuit, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit receives the packets transmitted by the first Bluetooth communication circuit but cannot sniff the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device; under the condition that the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device is changed, the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniffing mode; and during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the first control circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by using the first Bluetooth communication circuit, and the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device.

The present specification further provides an embodiment of a secondary bluetooth circuit in a multi-member bluetooth device. The multi-member Bluetooth device is used for data transmission with a remote Bluetooth device and comprises a main Bluetooth circuit and an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit, wherein the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit comprises: a second bluetooth communication circuit; a second packet parsing circuit configured to parse packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit; and a second control circuit, coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit and the second packet parsing circuit, configured to control the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit in a sniff mode and a relay mode; wherein, during the period that the auxiliary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode, the main bluetooth circuit receives the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device and transmits the received packets to the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, and the second control circuit receives the packets transmitted by the main bluetooth circuit by using the second bluetooth communication circuit), but the second control circuit does not use the second bluetooth communication circuit to sniff the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device; under the condition that the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device is changed, the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit is switched from the relay mode to the sniffing mode; and during the period that the auxiliary Bluetooth circuit operates in the sniffing mode, the main Bluetooth circuit receives packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device, and the second control circuit sniffs the packets transmitted by the remote Bluetooth device by utilizing the second Bluetooth communication circuit.

One advantage of the above embodiment is that the multi-member bluetooth device can adaptively adjust the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit when the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device changes.

Another advantage of the above embodiments is that the workload of the primary bluetooth circuitry, the data bandwidth requirements between the primary bluetooth circuitry and the secondary bluetooth circuitry, the power consumption, heat generation, and/or temperature of the primary bluetooth circuitry may be reduced.

Another advantage of the above-described embodiments is that the standby time or life of the main bluetooth circuitry may be extended and/or the comfort of use of the main bluetooth circuitry may be improved.

Other advantages of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following description and drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram of a multi-member bluetooth device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 to fig. 3 are simplified flowcharts of a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 to 5 are simplified flowcharts illustrating an operating method of a multi-member bluetooth device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 to 7 are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 to 9 are simplified flowcharts illustrating an operating method of a multi-member bluetooth device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 to 11 are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method for operating a multi-member bluetooth device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or similar components or process flows.

Fig. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram of a multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The multi-member bluetooth device 100 is used for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device 102 and includes a plurality of member circuits (member circuits). For convenience of explanation, only three member circuits, a first bluetooth circuit 110, a second bluetooth circuit 120, and a third bluetooth circuit 130, are shown in the embodiment of fig. 1.

In the embodiment, all the member circuits in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 have similar main circuit structures, but different additional circuit components may be disposed in different member circuits, without limitation, the circuit structures of all the member circuits are all the same. For example, as shown in fig. 1, the first bluetooth circuit 110 includes a first bluetooth communication circuit 111, a first packet parsing circuit 113, a first clock synchronization circuit 115, and a first control circuit 117. Similarly, the second bluetooth circuit 120 includes a second bluetooth communication circuit 121, a second packet parsing circuit 123, a second clock synchronization circuit 125, and a second control circuit 127.

The main circuit components inside the third bluetooth circuit 130 are also similar to the first bluetooth circuit 110 or the second bluetooth circuit 120, but the internal circuit components of the third bluetooth circuit 130 are not shown in fig. 1 for the sake of brevity.

In the first bluetooth circuit 110, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 can be used for data communication with other bluetooth devices. The first packet parsing circuit 113 may be configured to parse the bluetooth packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. The first clock synchronization circuit 115 is coupled to the first packet parsing circuit 113, and is configured to adjust a clock signal used by the first bluetooth circuit 110 to synchronize a piconet clock (piconet clock) used between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and other bluetooth devices.

The first control circuit 117 is coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, the first packet parsing circuit 113, and the first clock synchronization circuit 115, and configured to control operation modes of the aforementioned circuits. In operation, the first control circuit 117 is capable of communicating data directly with the remote bluetooth device 102 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 via bluetooth wireless transmission, and communicating data with other member circuits via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. The first control circuit 117 also uses the first packet parsing circuit 113 to parse the packet received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to obtain the related data or command.

In the second bluetooth circuit 120, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 can be used for data communication with other bluetooth devices. The second packet parsing circuit 123 may be configured to parse the bluetooth packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The second clock synchronization circuit 125 is coupled to the second packet parsing circuit 123, and is configured to adjust a clock signal used by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to synchronize a piconet clock used between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and other bluetooth devices.

The second control circuit 127 is coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, the second packet parsing circuit 123, and the second clock synchronization circuit 125, and configured to control the operation of the aforementioned circuits. In operation, the second control circuit 127 can communicate data with other bluetooth devices via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 via bluetooth wireless transmission, and with other member circuits via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. The second control circuit 127 also uses the second packet parsing circuit 123 to parse the packet received by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to obtain the related data or command.

In practice, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 can be implemented by suitable wireless communication circuits capable of supporting various versions of bluetooth communication protocols. The first packet parsing Circuit 113 and the second packet parsing Circuit 123 can be implemented by various packet demodulation circuits, digital operation circuits, microprocessors, or Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The first clock synchronization circuit 115 and the second clock synchronization circuit 125 can be implemented by various suitable circuits capable of comparing and adjusting clock frequency and/or clock phase. The first control circuit 117 and the second control circuit 127 can be implemented by various microprocessors or digital signal processing circuits with appropriate computing capabilities.

In some embodiments, the first clock synchronization circuit 115 or the second clock synchronization circuit 125 may also be integrated into the first control circuit 117 or the second control circuit 127. In addition, the first packet parsing circuit 113 and the second packet parsing circuit 123 may be integrated into the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, respectively.

In other words, the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 and the first packet parsing circuit 113 may be implemented by different circuits, or may be implemented by the same circuit. Similarly, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 and the second packet parsing circuit 123 may be implemented by different circuits, or may be implemented by the same circuit.

In application, the different functional blocks of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may be integrated into a single circuit chip. For example, all functional blocks in the first Bluetooth circuit 110 may be integrated into a single Bluetooth control chip (Bluetooth controller IC). Similarly, all the functional blocks in the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be integrated into another single bluetooth control chip.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, different member circuits in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can perform data communication with each other through their respective bluetooth communication circuits to form various forms of data networks or data links. When the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 communicates with the remote Bluetooth device 102, the remote Bluetooth device 102 treats the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 as a single Bluetooth device, and the member circuits of the multi-member Bluetooth device 100 select one of the member circuits to play the role of a master Bluetooth circuit (main Bluetooth circuit) for processing the primary task of receiving the packets sent by the remote Bluetooth device 102, while the other member circuits play the role of an auxiliary Bluetooth circuit (auxiliary Bluetooth circuit) at the same time.

The primary bluetooth circuit may receive packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 using various known mechanisms, and the secondary bluetooth circuit may obtain packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 using an appropriate mechanism during operation of the primary bluetooth circuit.

For example, during the process of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the secondary bluetooth circuit may operate in a sniff mode (sniff mode) to actively sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. Alternatively, the secondary bluetooth circuit may operate in a relay mode (relay mode) to passively receive only packets forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit after receiving packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and not actively sniff packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. The respective operation of the primary bluetooth circuit and the secondary bluetooth circuit in the above two situations will be described in detail in the following paragraphs.

It should be noted that the terms "primary bluetooth circuit" and "secondary bluetooth circuit" are used throughout the specification and the claims only for the convenience of distinguishing the way in which different member circuits receive packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and do not indicate whether the primary bluetooth circuit has some degree of control authority over the other operating sides of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In addition, the roles of the master bluetooth circuit and the slave bluetooth circuit may also be dynamically exchanged during the operation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100. For example, the primary bluetooth circuit may intermittently evaluate its operational parameters, such as its computational load, remaining power, temperature, and/or operating environment, and hand over the role of the primary bluetooth circuit to other secondary bluetooth circuits if the aforementioned operational parameters satisfy certain predetermined conditions.

For another example, the master bluetooth circuit may intermittently compare the difference between the operating parameter of the master bluetooth circuit and the operating parameters of the other slave bluetooth circuits, and hand over the role of the master bluetooth circuit to the other slave bluetooth circuits when the difference between the operating parameter of the master bluetooth circuit and the operating parameter of the slave bluetooth circuits exceeds a predetermined level.

For example, the master bluetooth circuit may intermittently compare its own bluetooth packet loss rate with bluetooth packet loss rates of other slave bluetooth circuits, and hand over the role of the master bluetooth circuit to the other slave bluetooth circuits when the bluetooth packet loss rates of the other slave bluetooth circuits are relatively low.

In practice, the master bluetooth circuit may also take into account the above evaluation conditions to determine whether to hand over the role of the master bluetooth circuit to other slave bluetooth circuits.

Or, the auxiliary bluetooth circuit can also adopt various modes to judge whether the main bluetooth circuit is disabled or missing, and when the main bluetooth circuit is determined to be disabled or missing, the auxiliary bluetooth circuit replaces the old main bluetooth circuit, and actively and continuously plays the role of the main bluetooth circuit.

As mentioned above, in practical applications, the data type of the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may vary according to the current operating situation. For example, when the user operates the remote bluetooth device 102 to play audio/video data by using the multi-member bluetooth device 100, the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the multi-member bluetooth device 100 are usually multimedia data with serial codes. However, when the user uses the remote bluetooth device 102 to transmit data required for updating the firmware or program version to the multi-member bluetooth device 100, the packets transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the multi-member bluetooth device 100 are usually non-multimedia data without a serial code, such as program data, update modules, etc. Under the condition that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 changes but the roles of the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit are not exchanged, if the matching operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit cannot be adjusted adaptively, the main bluetooth circuit may not effectively confirm whether the auxiliary bluetooth circuit misses the packet; may result in faster power consumption, higher heat generation, and/or higher temperatures of the main bluetooth circuitry; the comfort of use of the main bluetooth circuitry may be reduced; may reduce the overall operational performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 and/or reduce standby time; may cause inconvenience in use of the multi-member bluetooth device 100; it may also cause a problem that the secondary bluetooth circuit is easy to miss packets and cannot complete a specific operation (e.g., firmware update).

To avoid the above problem, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 dynamically monitors whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 changes during the operation.

The operation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 will be further described with reference to fig. 2 to 3. Fig. 2 to 3 are simplified flowcharts illustrating an operation method of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the flowcharts of fig. 2 to 3, the flow in the field to which a specific device belongs represents the flow performed by the specific device. For example, the portion marked in the "master bluetooth circuit" field is the flow performed by the member circuit acting as the master bluetooth circuit; the portion marked in the "secondary bluetooth circuitry" field is the flow performed by the member circuitry acting as the secondary bluetooth circuitry, and the logic described above is also applicable to other subsequent flow diagrams.

As shown in fig. 2, when the user uses the multi-member bluetooth device 100 to receive a sequence number (sequence number) packet (e.g., video data) sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 first performs a process 202 to obtain bluetooth connection parameters required for receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In practice, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may first use any one member circuit to connect with the remote bluetooth device 102 to obtain the bluetooth connection parameters, and then use the member circuit to transmit the obtained bluetooth connection parameters to other member circuits.

For example, in one embodiment, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may control the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to establish a bluetooth connection with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the process 202, and transmit the bluetooth connection parameter between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to other member circuits such as the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, so that the other member circuits can subsequently receive the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the bluetooth connection parameter.

For another example, in another embodiment, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may control the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to establish a bluetooth connection with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the process 202, and transmit the bluetooth connection parameter between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to other member circuits through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, so that the other member circuits can subsequently receive the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the bluetooth connection parameter. On the other hand, the second control circuit 127 may further transmit the device identification data of the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the bluetooth connection parameter between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 in the process 202, so that the first bluetooth circuit 110 can perform bidirectional packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 in the subsequent process. Then, the second bluetooth circuit 120 is changed to receive the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 in one direction, and does not transmit the packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, so as to avoid the problem of packet collision of the remote bluetooth device 102.

For convenience of description, it is assumed that the member circuit currently selected to process the primary task of receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) play the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In the process 204, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may notify other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and then the first bluetooth circuit 110 will play the role of the master bluetooth circuit and instruct the other member circuits to play the role of the slave bluetooth circuit and operate in the sniff mode. That is, the first bluetooth circuit 110 is responsible for processing the primary task of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and other member circuits only sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, but do not allow the transmission of commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102.

Then, during the sub-bluetooth circuit operating in the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 206.

In the process 206, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packet with the sequence code from the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, but the first control circuit 117 does not forward the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 to other sub-bluetooth circuits through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In operation, the first control circuit 117 may perform packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 by using the bluetooth connection parameter obtained in the process 202 to receive various packets from the remote bluetooth device 102 or transmit various packets to the remote bluetooth device 102. As can be seen from the operation of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the first bluetooth circuit 110 for packet transmission with the remote bluetooth device 102 may be obtained by the first bluetooth circuit 110 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the second bluetooth circuit 120).

Each time the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may transmit a corresponding acknowledgement message (acknowledgement message) to the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. If the remote Bluetooth device 102 does not receive the corresponding acknowledgement for the particular packet, it retransmits the particular packet to the first Bluetooth communication circuit 111. In practice, various suitable packet handshake (handshake) mechanisms may be employed between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 to reduce or avoid missing packets.

On the other hand, while the master bluetooth circuit receives the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the other member circuits playing the role of the slave bluetooth circuit will proceed to the process 208, which continuously operate in the sniff mode to sniff the packet with the sequence code sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. For example, in the process 208, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 according to the bluetooth connection parameters obtained in the process 202. In one embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 may sniff all bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In another embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 only sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110, but not sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to devices other than the multi-member bluetooth device 100. As can be seen from the above description of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 for sniffing the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 may be acquired by the second bluetooth circuit 120 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the first bluetooth circuit 110).

The secondary bluetooth circuit may perform the process 210 each time a packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is sniffed. In process 210, the secondary bluetooth circuit sends a notification message (notification message) corresponding to the sniffed packet to the primary bluetooth circuit, but does not send any acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102. For example, each time the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs a packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the second control circuit 127 may proceed to the process 210, and transmit a corresponding notification message to the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, but the second control circuit 127 does not transmit any confirmation message to the remote bluetooth device 102 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

In practice, the secondary bluetooth circuit may be modified to perform the aforementioned process 210 when the primary bluetooth circuit queries whether the secondary bluetooth circuit sniffs a specific packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

In other words, during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit is operating in the sniff mode, although the primary bluetooth circuit and the other secondary bluetooth circuits all receive the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 in this embodiment, only the primary bluetooth circuit will transmit the acknowledgement information to the remote bluetooth device 102 when receiving the packets, and the other secondary bluetooth circuits will not transmit the acknowledgement information to the remote bluetooth device 102, so as to avoid the false determination caused by the remote bluetooth device 102. Since the remote bluetooth device 102 does not know that the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 does not transmit the corresponding acknowledgement information to the remote bluetooth device 102, no packet handshaking procedure is performed between the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the remote bluetooth device 102 for the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

In this embodiment, the purpose of the second bluetooth circuit 120 transmitting the notification message to the first bluetooth circuit 110 is not to perform a packet handshake procedure with the first bluetooth circuit 110, but to allow the first bluetooth circuit 110 to know whether any packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120.

In addition, the purpose of the second bluetooth circuit 120 transmitting the notification message to the first bluetooth circuit 110 is not to allow the first bluetooth circuit 110 to determine whether to transmit the acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102. The first control circuit 117 of the present embodiment does not check whether the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives the notification message from the second bluetooth circuit 120 before transmitting the confirmation message to the remote bluetooth device 102. Therefore, the timing for the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to transmit the acknowledgement to the remote bluetooth device 102 is independent of whether the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 receives the notification from the second bluetooth circuit 120.

In practice, the aforementioned notification information transmitted by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the first bluetooth circuit 110 may be implemented by using various suitable data formats. For example, when the second bluetooth circuit 120 receives a specific bluetooth packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, the second control circuit 127 may extract a corresponding sequence code from the specific bluetooth packet, and combine or encode the sequence code together with a device code or device identification data for identifying the second bluetooth circuit 120 into notification information corresponding to the specific bluetooth packet. For another example, the second control circuit 127 may extract the appropriate packet identification data from the particular bluetooth packet and combine or encode the packet identification data with the device code or device identification data for identifying the second bluetooth circuit 120 into the notification information corresponding to the particular bluetooth packet.

As can be seen from the above description, in the process of sequentially sending a plurality of bluetooth packets by the remote bluetooth device 102, each of the sub-bluetooth circuits repeats the aforementioned process 208 and process 210 under normal conditions, and further transmits a plurality of notification messages to the first bluetooth circuit 110. For example, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may repeat the process 208 and the process 210 to transmit the notification messages corresponding to the bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110.

In actual operation, each sub-bluetooth circuit may occasionally receive some packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and the number of packets received by different sub-bluetooth circuits may be different. Therefore, the master bluetooth circuit may intermittently or periodically perform the process 212 to determine whether the respective slave bluetooth circuit fails to receive the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 according to the plurality of notification messages sent by the respective slave bluetooth circuit.

For example, in the process 212, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may check whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses receiving a part of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 according to a plurality of notification messages sent by the second bluetooth circuit 120. The first packet parsing circuit 113 can parse a plurality of sequence codes or a plurality of packet identification data from a plurality of notification messages sent from the second bluetooth circuit 120. The first control circuit 117 can check whether the serial codes or the packet identification data have continuity to check whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses part of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. If the above mentioned sequence code or packet identification data is not continuous, the first control circuit 117 can determine that the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet corresponding to the missing sequence code or packet identification data. Based on the missing serial code or packet identification data, the first control circuit 117 can further define which packets the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses to receive.

As mentioned above, the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 employ a packet handshake mechanism, so the first bluetooth circuit 110 should be able to successfully obtain all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 under normal conditions.

If the first control circuit 117 checks that a certain bluetooth circuit misses receiving a part of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the process proceeds to a step 214, in which the packets missed received by the bluetooth circuit are transmitted to the bluetooth circuit through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

For example, in the case that the first control circuit 117 checks that the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses receiving a specific packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the first control circuit 117 may proceed to the process 214 to transmit the packet missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 216 to receive the packet transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In other words, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the sniff mode, the second control circuit 127 can utilize the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to receive the packets transmitted from the first bluetooth circuit 110, so as to obtain the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 but missed by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

By repeating the above operations, the second bluetooth circuit 120 can fill up the missed packets with the help of the first bluetooth circuit 110. Similarly, the first bluetooth circuit 110 can assist other sub-bluetooth circuits to fill up the missing packets in the manner described above.

During the sniff mode, if the secondary bluetooth circuitry needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, the commands, data, or related packets must be forwarded to the remote bluetooth device 102 by the primary bluetooth circuitry. For example, if the second bluetooth circuit 120 needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102, the commands, data, or related packets must be transmitted to the first bluetooth circuit 110 acting as the master bluetooth circuit through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, and then transmitted to the remote bluetooth device 102 by the first bluetooth circuit 110, so as to avoid the problem of packet collision occurring in the remote bluetooth device 102.

In other words, during the sniff mode of operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit, all member circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 receive packets from the remote bluetooth device 102, but only allow the primary bluetooth circuit to transmit commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102.

As can be seen from the above description, the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102 employ a packet handshake mechanism to avoid missing packets, and the timing for the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to transmit the acknowledgement message to the remote bluetooth device 102 is independent of whether the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the notification message from the second bluetooth circuit 120.

Therefore, when receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the other sub-bluetooth circuits transmit corresponding notification information to the first bluetooth circuit 110, which does not interfere with or delay the packet handshaking procedure between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote bluetooth device 102, and does not cause additional operation burden on the first bluetooth circuit 110 for performing the packet handshaking procedure.

On the other hand, since other sub-bluetooth circuits (e.g., the second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, each sub-bluetooth circuit normally receives most of the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. Therefore, the first bluetooth circuit 110 as the master bluetooth circuit only needs to transmit the packets missed by the respective slave bluetooth circuits to the corresponding slave bluetooth circuits, and does not need to transmit all the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to each slave bluetooth circuit.

Therefore, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 interacts with the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the method of fig. 2, so that the packet forwarding burden of the main bluetooth circuit (in this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110) can be greatly reduced, and the power consumption of the main bluetooth circuit can be further reduced. Therefore, the working time and the standby time of the main Bluetooth circuit can be effectively prolonged.

In addition, the data transmission bandwidth requirement between the main Bluetooth circuit and other member circuits can be greatly reduced, so that the hardware design of the main Bluetooth circuit and other member circuits can be simplified, and/or the circuit complexity and the circuit cost can be reduced.

During operation, various suitable existing data synchronization mechanisms can be used between the main bluetooth circuit and the other auxiliary bluetooth circuits to ensure that different member circuits can synchronously play multimedia data transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102, thereby avoiding the situation that the playing time sequences of different member circuits are inconsistent.

As can be seen from the above description, during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit is operating in the sniff mode, although the roles of the primary bluetooth circuit and the secondary bluetooth circuit are not changed, the data type of the packet transmitted to the multi-member bluetooth device 100 by the remote bluetooth device 102 may be different due to the change of the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 by the user. When the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 changes, if the matching operation between the primary bluetooth circuit and the secondary bluetooth circuit cannot be adjusted adaptively, it may result in that the primary bluetooth circuit cannot effectively determine whether the secondary bluetooth circuit misses the packet, which may cause the secondary bluetooth circuit to easily miss the packet and fail to complete a specific operation (e.g., firmware update), and/or reduce the overall operation performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100. In some cases, it is also possible to shorten the life or standby time of the secondary bluetooth circuit or the primary bluetooth circuit. In addition, for some conventional multi-member bluetooth devices implemented using wireless bluetooth headsets, if a user wants to change the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device, the user must first take the multi-member bluetooth device off and put it into a specific device (e.g., a headset charger or a headset charger box) to perform a specific operation (e.g., updating the firmware of the multi-member bluetooth device), which obviously causes inconvenience to the user.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110, which is acting as the primary bluetooth circuit, also intermittently performs a process 302 to check the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102. For example, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may utilize the first packet parsing circuit 113 to parse the content of the packet received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 (i.e., the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102) and check the data type of the packet in the process 302. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may read the content of the sequence number field (sequence number field) in the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to determine whether the data type of the packet belongs to data with sequence code or data without sequence code.

The first control circuit 117 proceeds to process 304 to determine whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may temporarily store the data type of the packet previously transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 in a suitable storage circuit (not shown) for comparison with the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102. The first control circuit 117 may compare the data types of the currently transmitted packet and the previously transmitted packet of the remote bluetooth device 102 in the process 304 to determine whether the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from data with serial code to data without serial code.

If the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data with the serial code, it usually means that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is not changed. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may repeat the aforementioned operations of the process 206, the process 212, and the process 214, while the second bluetooth circuit 120 may continue to operate in the sniff mode.

On the other hand, if the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed to data without serial code, it usually means that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 has been changed. When the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed to data without serial code, it is difficult for the master bluetooth circuit to effectively determine whether the slave bluetooth circuit misses the packet, so that the slave bluetooth circuit may easily miss the packet and cannot complete a specific operation (e.g., firmware update). In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may proceed to flow 306.

In the process 306, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 generates a first mode switch indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the sniff mode to the relay mode, and transmits the first mode switch indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 308, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 receives the first mode switching indication from the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the second control circuit 127 switches the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120 from the sniff mode to the relay mode according to the first mode switching indication.

Then, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 310, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 312.

In the process 310, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packet without the serial code from the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and forwards the received packet to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 312, the second control circuit 127 controls the second bluetooth circuit 120 to operate in the relay mode, and receives the packet without the serial code forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. However, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second control circuit 127 does not use the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In other words, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 indirectly obtains the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth circuit 110.

As can be seen from the above description, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120, which plays the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit, is operating in the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110, which plays the role of the primary bluetooth circuit, intermittently checks and determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from data with serial code to data without serial code. As long as the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data with the sequence code, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the relay mode. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets that are missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, power consumption, and heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

The first bluetooth circuit 110 instructs the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode from the sniff mode to the relay mode only if the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from data with a sequence code to data without a sequence code. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 will stop sniffing packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, so that the situation that the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses packets can be effectively avoided. Therefore, the problem that the second bluetooth circuit 120 cannot complete a specific operation (e.g., firmware update) due to missing packets can be avoided.

Similarly, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the third bluetooth circuit 130 according to the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 in the manner described above.

Therefore, with the operation of fig. 2 and 3, the master bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the slave bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode when the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from data with a serial code to data without a serial code, and accordingly change the collocation operation between the master bluetooth circuit and the slave bluetooth circuit. Such a method can effectively avoid the problem that the secondary bluetooth circuit fails to complete a specific operation (e.g., firmware update) due to missing packets, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuit, or improving the user experience.

Furthermore, in some applications where the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is implemented using a wireless bluetooth headset, the user may suddenly want to update the firmware of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 while playing the multimedia data from the remote bluetooth device 102 using the multi-member bluetooth device 100. In this case, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may allow the user to interrupt the multimedia playing operation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 at any time when half of the multimedia data transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is played by the multi-member bluetooth device 100 by using the operation manners of fig. 2 and 3, and instead, the multi-member bluetooth device 102 may be controlled to transmit the program data or the update module required for updating the firmware of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 to the multi-member bluetooth device 100. More importantly, during the aforementioned usage situation switching process, the user does not need to temporarily take the multi-member bluetooth device 100 off the ear and put it into a specific device (e.g., a headset charging seat or a headset charging box), so that the convenience of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 for the user can be significantly improved.

In the embodiments of fig. 2 to 3, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 checks and determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from data with a serial code to data without a serial code during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the sniff mode, and determines whether to switch the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit from the sniff mode to the relay mode according to the determination result. This is only a partial example and is not intended to limit the actual implementation of the invention. In practice, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may also dynamically determine whether to switch the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit according to the change of the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 during the period when the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode.

For example, fig. 4 to 5 are simplified flowcharts illustrating an operation method of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 4, when the user wants to use the multi-member bluetooth device 100 to receive the packets without serial codes (e.g., non-multimedia data such as program data, update module, etc.) sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may first perform the aforementioned process 202 to obtain the bluetooth connection parameters required for receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. The above description of the operation and the embodiment variations of the process 202 in fig. 2 also apply to the embodiment in fig. 4.

For convenience of description, it is also assumed that the first bluetooth circuit 110 is the member circuit of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 that is currently selected to process the primary task of receiving the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and the other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) play the role of the secondary bluetooth circuit.

In the process 404, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may notify other member circuits (e.g., the aforementioned second bluetooth circuit 120 and the third bluetooth circuit 130) in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and then the first bluetooth circuit 110 will play the role of the master bluetooth circuit and instruct the other member circuits to play the role of the slave bluetooth circuit and operate in the relay mode. That is, the first bluetooth circuit 110 is responsible for processing the main task of receiving the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and other member circuits only need to receive the packets forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110, and do not need to sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102, and do not allow other member circuits to transmit commands, data, or other related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102.

Then, during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit in the relay mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 406.

In the process 406, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can utilize the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 to receive the packet without the serial code from the remote bluetooth device 102, and the first control circuit 117 can also forward the packet without the serial code from the remote bluetooth device 102 to other secondary bluetooth circuits through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. For example, the first control circuit 117 may forward the packets without the serial code from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

As mentioned above, various suitable packet handshaking mechanisms may be employed between the first Bluetooth circuit 110 and the remote Bluetooth device 102 to reduce or avoid missing packets.

In process 408, the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode to receive the packets without the sequence code forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110. During the time that the secondary bluetooth circuitry is operating in the relay mode, the secondary bluetooth circuitry does not sniff packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In addition, if the secondary bluetooth circuitry needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102 during the sniff mode of operation, the commands, data, or related packets must be forwarded to the remote bluetooth device 102 by the primary bluetooth circuitry.

For example, the second control circuit 127 may control the second bluetooth circuit 120 to operate in the relay mode in the process 408, and receive the packet without the serial code forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, but not sniff the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. That is, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 indirectly obtains the packet without the serial code sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 through the first bluetooth circuit 110. If the second bluetooth circuit 120 needs to transmit commands, data, or related packets to the remote bluetooth device 102 during this period, the commands, data, or related packets must be transmitted to the first bluetooth circuit 110, which plays the role of master bluetooth circuit, through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121, and then transmitted to the remote bluetooth device 102 by the first bluetooth circuit 110, so as to avoid the problem of packet collision of the remote bluetooth device 102.

As shown in fig. 4, during the slave bluetooth circuit operating in the relay mode, the master bluetooth circuit also intermittently performs a process 410 to check the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102. For example, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may utilize the first packet parsing circuit 113 to parse the contents of the specific field of the packet received by the first bluetooth communication circuit 111 (i.e., the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102) in the process 410 to obtain the data type of the packet. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may read the content of the sequence code field or the content of other predetermined fields in the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to determine whether the data type of the packet belongs to data with sequence code or data without sequence code.

Next, the first control circuit 117 in this embodiment may proceed to the process 412 to determine whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may temporarily store the data type of the packet previously transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 in a suitable storage circuit (not shown) for comparison with the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102.

If the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data without the serial code, it usually means that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is not changed. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may repeat the aforementioned operations of the process 406, the process 410, and the process 412, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 may continue to operate in the relay mode.

On the contrary, if the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 becomes data with a serial code, it usually means that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 has changed. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may perform the flow 502 in fig. 5.

In the process 502, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 generates a second mode switching indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and transmits the second mode switching indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 504, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 receives a second mode switching indication from the first bluetooth circuit 110, and the second control circuit 127 switches the operation mode of the second bluetooth circuit 120 from the relay mode to the sniff mode according to the second mode switching indication.

Then, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to process 506, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 proceeds to process 508.

In the process 506, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives the packet with the sequence code from the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, but the first control circuit 117 does not forward the packet from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 508, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 sniffs the packet with the sequence code sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by using the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 according to the bluetooth connection parameter obtained in the process 202. In one embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 may sniff all bluetooth packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102. In another embodiment, the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 only sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to the first bluetooth circuit 110, but not sniffs bluetooth packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 to devices other than the multi-member bluetooth device 100. As can be seen from the above description of the process 202, the bluetooth connection parameters used by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 for sniffing the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 may be acquired by the second bluetooth circuit 120 itself or transmitted from other member circuits (e.g., the first bluetooth circuit 110).

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may perform the same operations as the aforementioned processes 210 to 216 in fig. 2.

As can be seen from the above description, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120, which plays the role of the slave bluetooth circuit, is operating in the relay mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110, which plays the role of the master bluetooth circuit, intermittently checks and determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from data with no serial code to data with serial code. As long as the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data without the sequence code, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the difficulty in determining whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102.

The first bluetooth circuitry 110 may instruct the second bluetooth circuitry 120 to switch the operation mode from the relay mode to the sniff mode only if the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from data without a sequence code to data with a sequence code. After the second bluetooth circuit 120 is switched to the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, the power consumption, and the heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and the standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for the data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

Therefore, by using the operation manners of fig. 4 and fig. 5, when the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from the data without the sequence code to the data with the sequence code, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and correspondingly change the collocation operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Referring to fig. 6 to 7, a simplified flowchart of an operation method of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown.

In the embodiment of fig. 6 and 7, during the slave bluetooth circuit operating in the relay mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110, which is also acting as the master bluetooth circuit, intermittently performs the process 410 to check the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102. However, after the process 410, the first bluetooth circuit 110 in this embodiment does not perform the process 412, but performs the process 612 in fig. 6 to generate and transmit a corresponding data type notification to the respective secondary bluetooth circuits.

For example, the first control circuit 117 may generate a data type notification corresponding to the data type of the packet currently transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 in the flow 612, and transmit the data type notification to all the secondary bluetooth circuits through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111. In practice, the aforementioned data type notification may be implemented in various suitable information formats.

In process 614, the secondary bluetooth circuit receives the data type notification from the first bluetooth circuit 110 and determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed. For example, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may receive the data type notification from the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 in the process 614, and the second control circuit 127 may determine whether the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed according to the data type notification. In practice, the second control circuit 127 can temporarily store the data type notification previously sent from the first bluetooth circuit 110 in a suitable storage circuit (not shown) for comparison with the data type notification currently sent from the first bluetooth circuit 110.

If the current data type notification indicates that the data type of the packet of the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to data without a serial code, it usually means that the operation context of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is not changed. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may repeat the aforementioned operation of the process 408 to continue operating in the relay mode.

Conversely, if the current data type notification indicates that the data type of the packet of the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed to data with a serial code, it generally indicates that the operation context of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 has changed. In this case, the second control circuit 127 can proceed to the process 616 to generate a second mode switching request, and transmit the second mode switching request to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

In the process 618, the first bluetooth circuit 110 receives a second mode switching request from the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

Next, the first bluetooth circuit 110 proceeds to the process 702 in fig. 7. In the process 702, the first control circuit 117 of the first bluetooth circuit 110 determines whether to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode. In this embodiment, after receiving the second mode switching request, the first control circuit 117 may determine whether to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode according to a predetermined rule, and perform a corresponding subsequent processing procedure according to the determination result.

If the first control circuit 117 determines that the second bluetooth circuit 120 is not allowed to switch the operation mode, the process 704 may be performed. Otherwise, if the first control circuit 117 determines to allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode after the determination, the aforementioned process 502 may be performed.

Since the first bluetooth circuit 110 allows the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 can switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and then the second bluetooth circuit 120 can sniff the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 by itself, the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not need to transfer the packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120. As a result, the computation load, power consumption, or heat generation of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may be increased, but the data bandwidth requirement between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 may be reduced, and the computation load, power consumption, or heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 may also be reduced.

Therefore, the first control circuit 117, after receiving the second mode switching request, can evaluate whether there is a factor unsuitable for the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, and if not, can allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode. For example, the first control circuit 117 may allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode if the current operation load of the second bluetooth circuit 120 is lower than a predetermined level, the remaining power is higher than a predetermined threshold, and/or the temperature is lower than a predetermined temperature. For another example, the first control circuit 117 may allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode only when the current operation load of the first bluetooth circuit 110 is higher than a predetermined level, the remaining power is lower than a predetermined threshold, and/or the temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature.

In the process 704, the first control circuit 117 generates a rejection message indicating that the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not allow the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch the operation mode, and transmits the rejection message to the second bluetooth circuit 120 via the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

In the process 706, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may receive the rejection message from the first bluetooth circuit 110 via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In this case, the second control circuit 127 controls the second bluetooth circuit 120 to continue operating in the relay mode according to the indication of the rejection message, and repeats the aforementioned operation of the process 408.

In the process 502, the first control circuit 117 generates a second mode switching indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and transmits the second mode switching indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may perform the same operations as the

aforementioned processes

506, 508, and 210 to 216 in fig. 5.

It should be noted that the aforementioned operation manner of the first control circuit 117 performing the determination procedure of the process 702 and performing the process 502 after determining that the second bluetooth circuit 120 is allowed to switch the operation mode is only an embodiment and is not limited to the practical implementation of the present invention. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may skip the determination procedure of the flow 702 and directly perform the flow 502 after receiving the second mode switching request.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 intermittently checks the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 and generates a corresponding data type notification, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 indirectly determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed according to the data type notification generated by the first bluetooth circuit 110. As long as the second bluetooth circuit 120 determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data without the serial code, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the difficulty in determining whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

The first bluetooth circuitry 110 may instruct the second bluetooth circuitry 120 to switch the operation mode from the relay mode to the sniff mode only if the second bluetooth circuitry 120 determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from data without a sequence code to data with a sequence code. After the second bluetooth circuit 120 is switched to the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, the power consumption, and the heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and the standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for the data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

Therefore, by using the operation manners of fig. 6 and fig. 7, when the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from the data without the sequence code to the data with the sequence code, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and correspondingly change the collocation operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

Please refer to fig. 8 to 9, which are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method of operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiments of fig. 8 and 9, the operations of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 in the process 202 and the processes 404 to 408 are the same as those in the embodiments of fig. 4 or 6. In other words, the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode to receive the packets without the serial code forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit. However, in this embodiment, after the secondary bluetooth circuit performs the process 408, the process 810 in fig. 8 is also performed to check the data type of the packet forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit.

For example, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may utilize the second packet parsing circuit 123 to parse the contents of the specific field of the packet received by the second bluetooth communication circuit 121 (i.e., the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110) in the process 810 to obtain the data type of the packet. In practice, the second control circuit 127 can read the content of the sequence code field or the content of other predetermined fields in the packet transmitted from the first bluetooth circuit 110 to determine whether the data type of the packet belongs to data with sequence code or data without sequence code.

Next, the second control circuit 127 may perform a process 812 to indirectly determine whether the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed by determining whether the data type of the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 is changed. In practice, the second control circuit 127 can temporarily store the data type of the packet previously transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110 in a suitable storage circuit (not shown) for comparison with the data type of the packet currently transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110.

If the data type of the packet currently transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110 still belongs to the data without the serial code, it represents that the current packet data type of the remote bluetooth device 102 also still belongs to the data without the serial code, which generally represents that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is not changed. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may repeat the operation of the process 406, and the second bluetooth circuit 120 may continue to operate in the relay mode, and repeat the operations of the

processes

408, 810, and 812.

Conversely, if the data type of the packet currently transmitted by the first bluetooth circuit 110 becomes data with a serial code, it means that the data type of the packet currently transmitted by the remote bluetooth device 102 becomes data with a serial code, which generally means that the operation situation of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 has changed. In this case, the second bluetooth circuit 120 may perform the aforementioned process 616 to generate a second mode switching request, and transmit the aforementioned second mode switching request to the first bluetooth circuit 110 through the second bluetooth communication circuit 121.

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may perform the operation flow of fig. 9. The above description of the operation of the corresponding process in fig. 7 also applies to the embodiment of fig. 9. For the sake of brevity, the description is not repeated here.

As can be seen from the above description, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 playing the role of the slave bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 intermittently checks the data type of the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 to indirectly determine whether the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 changes from the data without the serial code to the data with the serial code. As long as the second bluetooth circuit 120 determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data without the serial code, the first bluetooth circuit 110 will not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the difficulty in determining whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

Therefore, by using the operation manners of fig. 8 and fig. 9, when the secondary bluetooth circuit determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from data without a sequence code to data with a sequence code, the primary bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the secondary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and accordingly change the collocation operation between the primary bluetooth circuit and the secondary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving user experience.

Please refer to fig. 10 to 11, which are simplified flowcharts illustrating a method of operating the multi-member bluetooth device 100 according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiments of fig. 10 and 11, the operations of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 in the process 202 and the processes 404 to 810 are the same as those in the embodiment of fig. 8. In other words, the secondary bluetooth circuit operates in the relay mode to receive the packets without the serial code forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit. However, in this embodiment, after the secondary bluetooth circuit performs the process 810, the process 812 in fig. 8 is not performed, but the process 1012 in fig. 10 is performed to generate and transmit a corresponding data type notification to the primary bluetooth circuit.

For example, the second control circuit 127 of the second bluetooth circuit 120 may generate a data type notification corresponding to the data type of the packet currently forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 in flow 1012, and transmit the data type notification to the first bluetooth circuit 110 via the second bluetooth communication circuit 121. In practice, the aforementioned data type notification may be implemented in various suitable information formats.

In the process 1014, the first bluetooth circuit 110 may receive the data type notification from the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111, and the first control circuit 117 may indirectly determine whether the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed according to the data type notification. In practice, the first control circuit 117 may temporarily store the data type notification previously sent from the second bluetooth circuit 120 in a suitable storage circuit (not shown) for comparison with the data type notification currently sent from the second bluetooth circuit 120.

If the current data type notification indicates that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to data without a serial code, it usually means that the operation context of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 is not changed. In this case, the first bluetooth circuit 110 can repeat the aforementioned operation of the process 406.

Conversely, if the current data type notification indicates that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed to data with a serial code, it generally indicates that the operation context of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 has changed. In this case, the first control circuit 117 may perform the process 502 in fig. 11 to generate a second mode switching indication for instructing the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and transmit the second mode switching indication to the second bluetooth circuit 120 through the first bluetooth communication circuit 111.

Next, the multi-member bluetooth device 100 may proceed with the remaining operation flow of fig. 11. The above description of the operation of the corresponding process in fig. 5 also applies to the embodiment of fig. 11. For the sake of brevity, the description is not repeated here.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, during the period when the second bluetooth circuit 120 operates in the relay mode, the second bluetooth circuit 120 intermittently checks the data type of the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth circuit 110 and generates a corresponding data type notification, and the first bluetooth circuit 110 indirectly determines whether the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed according to the data type notification generated by the second bluetooth circuit 120. As long as the first bluetooth circuit 110 determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 still belongs to the data without the serial code, the first bluetooth circuit 110 does not instruct the second bluetooth circuit 120 to switch to the sniff mode, so as to avoid the difficulty in determining whether the second bluetooth circuit 120 misses the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102.

The first bluetooth circuitry 110 may instruct the second bluetooth circuitry 120 to switch the operation mode from the relay mode to the sniff mode only if the first bluetooth circuitry 110 determines that the data type of the packet sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from data without a sequence code to data with a sequence code. After the second bluetooth circuit 120 is switched to the sniff mode, the first bluetooth circuit 110 only needs to transmit the packets missed by the second bluetooth circuit 120 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, and does not need to forward all packets sent by the remote bluetooth device 102 to the second bluetooth circuit 120, so that the operation burden, the power consumption, and the heat generation of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be reduced, the operating time and the standby time of the first bluetooth circuit 110 can be prolonged, and the requirement for the data transmission bandwidth between the first bluetooth circuit 110 and the second bluetooth circuit 120 can be reduced.

Therefore, by using the operation manners of fig. 10 and fig. 11, when the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device 102 is changed from the data without the sequence code to the data with the sequence code, the main bluetooth circuit in the multi-member bluetooth device 100 can adaptively switch the operation mode of the auxiliary bluetooth circuit from the relay mode to the sniff mode, and accordingly change the collocation operation between the main bluetooth circuit and the auxiliary bluetooth circuit, so that management mechanisms such as load balance, power consumption balance, or heat balance can be implemented between the plurality of bluetooth circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, thereby improving the overall performance of the multi-member bluetooth device 100, prolonging the service life of the bluetooth circuits, or improving the user experience.

It should be noted that the number of the member circuits of the multi-member bluetooth device 100 in the foregoing embodiments can be reduced to two, and can also be increased according to the requirement of the actual circuit application.

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components, and those skilled in the art may refer to the same components by different names. The present specification and claims do not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms "include" and "comprise" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "include, but not limited to. Also, the term "coupled" is intended to include any direct or indirect connection. Therefore, if the first element is coupled to the second element, it means that the first element can be directly connected to the second element through electrical connection or signal connection such as wireless transmission or optical transmission, or indirectly connected to the second element through other elements or connection means.

The description of "and/or" as used in this specification is inclusive of any combination of one or more of the listed items. In addition, any singular term includes a plurality of meanings at the same time, unless the specification specifically states otherwise.

The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made by the claims of the present invention should be covered by the present invention.

[ notation ] to show

Multi-member Bluetooth device (Multi-member Bluetooth device)

Remote Bluetooth device (remote Bluetooth device)

A first Bluetooth circuit (first Bluetooth circuit)

A first Bluetooth communication circuit (first Bluetooth communication circuit)

A first packet parsing circuit (first packet parsing circuit)

A first clock synchronizing circuit (first clock synchronizing circuit)

A first control circuit (first control circuit)

120.. a second Bluetooth circuit (second Bluetooth circuit)

A second Bluetooth communication circuit (second Bluetooth communication circuit)

A second packet parsing circuit (second packet matching circuit)

A second clock synchronizing circuit (second clock synchronizing circuit)

A second control circuit (second control circuit)

A third Bluetooth circuit (third Bluetooth circuit).

Claims

1. A master bluetooth circuit (110) in a multi-member bluetooth device (100), the multi-member bluetooth device (100) for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device (102) and comprising the master bluetooth circuit (110) and a slave bluetooth circuit (120) selectively operable in a sniff mode or a relay mode, the master bluetooth circuit (110) comprising:

a first bluetooth communication circuit (111);

a first packet parsing circuit (113) configured to parse packets received by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111); and

a first control circuit (117) coupled to the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) and the first packet parsing circuit (113);

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the relay mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and forwards the received packet to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) receives the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), but the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) does not sniff the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102);

the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) switches from the relay mode to the sniff mode when the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102) changes; and

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the sniff mode, the first control circuit (117) receives the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) sniffs the packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102).

2. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) of claim 1, wherein during the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operating in the relay mode, one of the first control circuit (117) and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) checks a data type of a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102), and one of the first control circuit (117) and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) determines whether the data type is changed;

wherein if the data type is changed from data without serial code to data with serial code, the first control circuit (117) transmits a mode switching indication to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) through the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) to indicate that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is switched from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

3. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) according to claim 2, wherein, during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in the relay mode, the first control circuit (117) is further configured to check a data type of a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) and determine whether the data type is changed;

4. The primary bluetooth circuit (110) according to claim 2, wherein during the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operating in the relay mode, the first control circuit (117) is further configured to check a data type of a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102), and transmit a corresponding data type notification to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) via the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), so that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) can determine whether the data type is changed according to the data type notification;

wherein if the data type is changed from data without serial code to data with serial code, the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) receives a mode switching request generated by the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), wherein the mode switching request is used for requesting the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to allow the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

5. The master bluetooth circuit (110) according to claim 2, wherein during the operation of the slave bluetooth circuit (120) in the relay mode, the slave bluetooth circuit (120) checks the data type of the packet forwarded by the first bluetooth communication circuit (111) and transmits a corresponding data type notification to the first bluetooth communication circuit (111), and the first control circuit (117) is further configured to indirectly determine whether the data type of the packet forwarded by the remote bluetooth device (102) is changed according to the data type notification;

6. A secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in a multi-member bluetooth device (100), the multi-member bluetooth device (100) configured for data transmission with a remote bluetooth device (102) and comprising a primary bluetooth circuit (110) and the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) comprising:

a second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

a second packet parsing circuit (123) configured to parse packets received by the second bluetooth communication circuit (121); and

a second control circuit (127) coupled to the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) and the second packet parsing circuit (123) and configured to control operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in a sniff mode and a relay mode;

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operates in the relay mode, the primary bluetooth circuit (110) receives the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) and transfers the received packet to the secondary bluetooth circuit (120), and the second control circuit (127) receives the packet transferred from the primary bluetooth circuit (110)) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121), but the second control circuit (127) does not sniff the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121);

during the period that the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) is operating in the sniff mode, the primary bluetooth circuit (110) receives packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102), and the second control circuit (127) sniffs packets transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) by using the second bluetooth communication circuit (121).

7. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 6, wherein during the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) operating in the relay mode, one of the primary bluetooth circuit (110) and the second control circuit (127) checks a data type of a packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102), and one of the primary bluetooth circuit (110) and the second control circuit (127) determines whether the data type is changed;

wherein, if the data type is changed from data without serial code to data with serial code, the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) receives a mode switching indication generated by the primary bluetooth circuit (110), and the second control circuit (127) switches the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) from the relay mode to the sniff mode according to the mode switching indication.

8. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) according to claim 7, wherein during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in the relay mode, the primary bluetooth circuit (110) checks the data type of the packet transmitted from the remote bluetooth device (102) and transmits a corresponding data type notification to the second bluetooth communication circuit (121), and the second control circuit (127) is further configured to determine whether the data type is changed according to the data type notification;

wherein if the data type is changed from data without serial code to data with serial code, the second control circuit (127) transmits a mode switching request to the primary bluetooth circuit (110) through the second bluetooth communication circuit (121) to request the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to allow the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) to switch from the relay mode to the sniff mode.

9. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) of claim 7, wherein during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in the relay mode, the second control circuit (127) checks the data type of the packet forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit (110) to indirectly determine whether the data type of the packet forwarded by the remote bluetooth device (102) has changed;

10. The secondary bluetooth circuit (120) according to claim 7, wherein during the operation of the secondary bluetooth circuit (120) in the relay mode, the second control circuit (127) checks the data type of the packet forwarded by the primary bluetooth circuit (110), and transmits a corresponding data type notification to the primary bluetooth circuit (110) via the second bluetooth communication circuit (121), so that the primary bluetooth circuit (110) indirectly determines whether the data type of the packet transmitted by the remote bluetooth device (102) is changed according to the data type notification;