Patent Description:
In recent years electronic devices have become increasingly sophisticated. Electronic devices, including smart phones, smart watches, smart glasses, tablet computers, and notebook computers, are often able to communicate with numerous types of supportive or accessory devices such as keyboards, mice, trackpads, headsets, speakers, remote controllers, videogame controllers, etc. Such accessory devices may support one or more of various communications technologies, including wired and wireless technologies, in order to connect, or pair, with electronic devices. In particular, these devices often utilize short range wireless communication technologies and standards, such as IEEE <NUM> (WLAN or Wi-Fi), or BLUETOOTH™ (BT) or BLUETOOTH™ Low Energy (BTLE), among others.

Short range wireless communication technologies are oftentimes used to establish wireless personal area networks (WPANs). WPANs can be used for communication among the electronic devices themselves (intrapersonal communication), or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet (an uplink), or for connecting accessory devices with the electronic devices (pairing). Other short range wireless communication technologies used in establishing WPANs include Wireless USB™, INSTEON™, IrDA™, and the like. The reach of a WPAN can vary from a few centimeters to a few meters. One primary concept of WPANs is referred to as "plugging in". For example, when any two WPAN-equipped devices come into close proximity (within several meters of each other), they can establish communications with each other as if they were connected by a cable. Another feature associated with WPAN-enabled devices and/or accessories is the ability of each device/accessory to selectively lock out other devices/accessories, preventing needless interference or unauthorized access to information.

As mentioned above, electronic devices are often capable of pairing with one or more accessory devices, enabling direct peer-to-peer communications between the paired devices. Pairing an accessory device and an electronic device often requires a prescribed procedure and/or actions in order to establish a functioning connection. Therefore, further improvements in the field are desired.

<CIT> describes devices and methods for facilitating direct pairing in a wireless docking system. Various aspects enable a docking procedure where a dockee, when docking with a docking host that manages a docking environment, can become directly paired with the peripherals in the docking environment in a straightforward fashion. <CIT> describes pairing between wireless devices and in particular to a method for enabling a wireless communication between at least one peripheral unit and a device.

Embodiments are presented herein for sharing an accessory device among multiple electronic devices such that the electronic devices may efficiently transition to and from being paired with the accessory device.

In some scenarios, a user may desire to utilize an accessory device across multiple other electronic devices as necessary. For example, a user may wish to use a BLUETOOTH™ (BT) headset with a mobile phone, e.g. an iPhone™, during one period of time, then use the same headset with a tablet computer (e.g. an iPad™) at another time, and possibly with a wearable electronic device (e.g. an Apple Watch™) at yet another time. However, transitioning an accessory device from being paired with (and thus useable by) a first electronic device to being paired with a second electronic device and a third electronic device (etc.) may present inefficiencies.

According to a first object, the invention provides a method as defined in claim <NUM> of the appended claims. In some embodiments, a first user equipment (UE) device associated with a certain user (or included in a specified set/group of UE devices) may establish a first communication link with an accessory device and transmit link (pairing) information associated with this communication link to a server, such as a cloud server. The server may share this link information with other UEs associated with the same user as the first UE (or belonging to the same specified group of UE devices as the first UE device). The link information and link information associated with other UE devices may be useable by the other UE devices and the accessory device in establishing respective communication links between any of the other UE devices and the accessory device.

According to a second object, the invention provides an apparatus as defined in claim <NUM> of the appended claims. Some embodiments may be implemented in a device that comprises at least one antenna, one or more radios implementing one or more wireless radio access technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), and a processing element coupled to the at least one antenna. The device may communicate with one or more other accessory devices. Note that the techniques described herein may be implemented in and/or used with a number of different types of devices, including but not limited to, computer systems, access points, cellular phones, portable media players, tablet computers, wearable devices, and various other computing devices. According to a third object, the invention provides a non-transitory memory element as defined in claim <NUM> of the appended claims. Preferred embodiments are covered by the appended claims.

Proximity can be used to prompt pairing of devices through a short range wireless communication protocol, e.g. BLUETOOTH™ (BT) low-energy (BTLE). When several hosts are in the vicinity, the user interface (UI) for proximity pairing may appear only on the host with which the accessory is attempting to pair. Cloud-based proximity pairing/switching helps limit the pairing options for an accessory to a specified or select group of devices, e.g. to a user's iCloud™ registered devices. When an accessory device is paired to one of a set of devices, the accessory, e.g., the BT stack, may send the link information associated with the pairing and the first device to other devices in the set. The link keys and/or other connection information associated with the other devices in the set also may be shared by the currently connected device with the accessory device. That is, link keys and/or other connection information associated with the other devices in the set may also be provided by the currently connected device to the accessory device. When the accessory device is within a particular proximity of another user device from the set of user devices, a disconnect message may be sent, e.g., over the cloud, to the currently connected device, enabling proximity-based switching of the accessory device to another device of the set of devices.

Further to the above, easy pairing between accessory devices and user devices may be performed according to a variety of different scenarios. In a first example, user devices and accessories (or accessory devices) may be connected over a secure transport such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) or secure Wi-Fi and the existing transport may be used for exchanging link information, e.g. security credentials. In a second example, when a short range wireless communications connection, e.g., a BLUETOOTH™ connection, is desired between more than two devices, the device that has a connection with the other two devices may act as a relay to transfer link information, such as BLUETOOTH™ security credentials, over the existing BLUETOOTH™ connections to establish a third connection without having to go through a pairing procedure.

Other features, examples, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

While features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

The following is a glossary of terms that may appear in the present application:.

Memory Medium - Any of various types of memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include an installation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks <NUM>, or tape device; a computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash, magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may comprise other types of memory as well or combinations thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a first computer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located in a second different computer system which connects to the first computer system over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer system for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., in different computer systems that are connected over a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computer programs) that may be executed by one or more processors and/or processing elements.

Computer System (or Computer) - any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digital assistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or other device or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" may be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or "UE Device") - any of various types of computer systems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wireless communications. Also referred to as wireless communication devices. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones or smart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones) and tablet computers such as iPad™, Samsung Galaxy™, etc., portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPod™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g. Apple Watch™, Google Glass™), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, or other handheld devices, etc. Various other types of devices would fall into this category if they include Wi-Fi or both cellular and Wi-Fi communication capabilities and/or other wireless communication capabilities, for example over short-range radio access technologies (SRATs) such as BLUETOOTH™, etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" may be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and/or telecommunications device (or combination of devices) which is easily transported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

Base Station (BS) - The term "Base Station" has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication station installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element - refers to various elements or combinations of elements that are capable of performing a function in a device, e.g. in a user equipment device or in a cellular network device. Processing elements may include, for example: processors and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, entire processor cores, processor arrays, circuits such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), programmable hardware elements such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), as well any of various combinations of the above.

Wireless Device (or wireless communication device) - any of various types of computer systems devices which performs wireless communications using WLAN communications, SRAT communications, Wi-Fi communications and the like. As used herein, the term "wireless device" may refer to a UE device, as defined above, or to a stationary device, such as a stationary wireless client or a wireless base station. For example a wireless device may be any type of wireless station of an <NUM> system, such as an access point (AP) or a client station (UE), or any type of wireless station of a cellular communication system communicating according to a cellular radio access technology (e.g. LTE, CDMA, GSM), such as a base station or a cellular telephone, for example.

BLUETOOTH™ - The term "BLUETOOTH™" has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, and at least includes any of the various implementations of the Bluetooth standard, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) and Bluetooth Low Energy for Audio (BTLEA), including future implementations of the Bluetooth standard, among others.

Personal Area Network - The term "Personal Area Network" has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, and at least includes any of various types of computer networks used for data transmission among devices such as computers, phones, tablets and input/output devices. Bluetooth is one example of a personal area network. A PAN is an example of a short range wireless communication technology.

<FIG> shows an example first device <NUM> which may be owned by and/or operated by a first user. The first device <NUM> may selectively connect over a wireless connection such as BLUETOOTH™ (BT) with various devices, such as a tablet computer <NUM>, one or more smart phones <NUM>, a computer <NUM>, a remote control <NUM>, a keyboard <NUM>, a headset or speaker <NUM>, and/or remote game controllers (GC) <NUM> and <NUM>, etc. In the example shown in <FIG>, the first device <NUM> is shown as being possibly connected with a number of BT devices, although the first device <NUM> may connect to any of various types of devices. In this example embodiment, the first device may be any of various types of devices, such as a computer, tablet, smart phone, wearable device, etc..

The first device <NUM> is also shown as being connected through a wide area network <NUM> to a server computer <NUM>. The server computer <NUM> may store information regarding other devices associated with or owned by the first user, e.g., as indicated by a first user account. For example, the server <NUM> may be a cloud-based server which stores information regarding other devices owned by the first user. The first device <NUM> may connect to the server <NUM> through network <NUM> over a Wi-Fi network, e.g., through a Wi-Fi access point for an Internet connection. Alternatively, or in addition, the first device <NUM> may connect to the server <NUM> through network <NUM> over a cellular connection. As will be further discussed below, the first device <NUM> may operate to create a pairing (establish short-range wireless communications) with a wireless device and in the process create and store link information. The link information may include any data, security credentials (e.g. security keys), link keys, long term keys, OOB keys, etc. depending on the short-range wireless communications protocol through which the first device <NUM> is paired with the wireless device.

The introduction of proximity pairing, as described above, also introduces several challenges, including but not limited to host-host calibration differences, environmental variations, and impact of Wi-Fi when associated with <NUM> networks. There are some host systems that are more susceptible to these factors than other host systems. For example, when there are several hosts in the vicinity, the user interface (UI) for proximity pairing (PP) should be displayed only on the host device for which the pairing is intended, and should not be displayed on any of the other hosts in the vicinity. To alleviate some of these issues, the proximity pairing/switching may be based on limiting the pairing to a specified or selected set of devices. For example, in some embodiments a cloud-based proximity pairing/switching between devices (e.g. between accessory devices and electrical/user devices) may help limit the access to a user's cloud-based devices. This may provide a seamless experience for the user to help use an accessory device with the intended (correct) electronic/user device at the intended time. The first device <NUM> may then be configured to provide the link information (or other connection information) to the server <NUM> so that this link information may be shared with other devices associated with or owned by the first user. These other devices may be considered as the specified or selected (set of) devices with which the first device <NUM> may be paired.

<FIG> illustrates an example where the first device <NUM> may be a computer system. Thus <FIG> shows an example of a first computer system 106A connected to one or more of various types of wireless devices. In this example embodiment, the first computer system 106A may connect to a wireless mouse <NUM>, wireless keyboard <NUM>, wireless trackpad <NUM>, and/or wireless headphones/earbuds/speaker <NUM>. In addition, the first computer system 106A may establish communications over a wide area network <NUM>, such as the Internet, using any of various communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi, cellular, or a wired connection, and may also communicate via network <NUM> communicate with a remote device/server <NUM> (for example). Furthermore, computer system 106A may wirelessly connect to a streaming device <NUM> (e.g. AppleTV™), and may connect with various mobile devices such as tablets <NUM> and cellular phones <NUM>. Overall, it should be noted that the first device <NUM> (such as computer device 106A) may connect over a WPAN to any one or more of the devices enumerated above, and any other similar devices equipped, for example, with short range wireless communication interfaces, e.g. BT and the like.

<FIG> illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a device <NUM>, such as the first device <NUM> in <FIG> and/or computer device 106A in <FIG>. As shown, the device <NUM> may include processor(s) <NUM>, which may execute program instructions for the device <NUM> and may comprise display circuitry <NUM> which may perform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display <NUM>. The processor(s) <NUM> may also be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) <NUM>, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) <NUM> and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory <NUM>, read only memory (ROM) <NUM>, Flash memory <NUM>) and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry <NUM>, radio <NUM>, connector I/F <NUM>, and/or display <NUM>. The MMU <NUM> may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or set up. In some embodiments, the MMU <NUM> may be included as a portion of the processor(s) <NUM>.

As shown, the processor <NUM> may be coupled to various other circuits of the device <NUM>. For example, the device <NUM> may include various types of memory, a connector interface <NUM> (e.g., for coupling to the computer system), the display <NUM>, and wireless communication circuitry (e.g., for Wi-Fi, BLUETOOTH™, LTE, LTE-A, GPS, etc.). The device <NUM> may include at least one antenna (e.g. 335a), and possibly multiple antennas (e.g. illustrated by antennas 335a and 335b), for performing wireless communication with base stations and/or other devices. Antennas 335a and 335b are shown by way of example, and UE device <NUM> may include more antennas. Overall, the one or more antennas are collectively referred to as antenna <NUM>. For example, the device <NUM> may use antenna <NUM> to perform the wireless communication with the aid of radio <NUM>. As noted above, the UE may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standards in some embodiments.

As described further subsequently herein, the device <NUM> may include hardware and software components for implementing improved methods for pairing and connecting with accessory devices. For example, the device of a user may store and execute a wireless software driver (e.g., a BLUETOOTH™ protocol stack), or other software, for providing link information associated with an accessory device to a server to be shared with other devices associated with the user. The device <NUM> may be configured to implement part or all of the methods described herein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium) and/or through hardware or firmware operation. In other embodiments, the methods described herein may be at least partially implemented by a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and/or as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Thus the device <NUM> may be configured to implement methods according to any of various embodiments disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, radio <NUM> may include separate controllers dedicated to controlling communications for various respective RAT standards. For example, as shown in <FIG>, radio <NUM> may include a Wi-Fi controller <NUM> and a BLUETOOTH™ controller <NUM>, and may also comprise a cellular controller (e.g. LTE controller) <NUM>. In some embodiments, one or more or all of these controllers may be implemented as hardware, software, firmware or some combination thereof. While three separate controllers are illustrated within radio <NUM>, other embodiments may have fewer, more, and/or different controllers for various different RATs that may be implemented in device <NUM>.

It should also be noted that any of the accessory devices exemplified in <FIG> may also include certain components described in <FIG> as components of first device <NUM>. For example, a headset accessory device (e.g. <NUM> in <FIG>) may include radio circuitry for short range wireless communications, e.g. a BLUETOOTH™ controller such as controller <NUM> shown in <FIG>, in addition to various other components particular to the functionality and purpose of the accessory device (e.g. speakers, transducers, etc.).

<FIG> shows the flow chart for an example method by which an accessory device may transition from a connection with a first device to connecting to a second device, according to some embodiments. The first device and the second device may be any of various previously enumerated and/or described devices, such as device <NUM>, and in some scenarios may belong to different classes of devices. In some embodiments the first device and second device may also be included in a specified group of devices or a designated set of devices, for example they may be associated with a common user account (e.g., a cloud-based account, such as an iCloud™ account) of a user which may be maintained by a cloud-based server. In other embodiments the devices may be grouped and/or designated as belonging to a group of devices based on another criteria. In general, the devices may be considered as part of a group of devices, e.g. a group of trusted devices. The accessory device may be any of various devices as described above in relation to <FIG> and <FIG>, such as a headset, game controller, mouse, keyboard, wearable, or other similar device, including at least components that facilitate and enable short range wireless communication for pairing with the first device and the second device.

At <NUM>, the first device may pair with the accessory device. In some embodiments, user input on the first device or the accessory device may initiate the pairing or the pairing may occur automatically. For example, the first device may exchange a pairing request with the accessory device for the purpose of establishing a connection between the devices. The accessory device may be able to connect with the first device by one or more of various means, including wired or wireless connections. For example, the accessory device may be a BLUETOOTH™ (BT) device, which may operate to connect to the first device wirelessly, using BT technology. In general, the accessory device may operate to connect to the first device wirelessly, using any of various available WPAN technologies, or short range wireless communications technologies.

At <NUM> the first device may communicate information associated with the first pairing (or with the first pairing request) to a central location such as a server, e.g. a cloud-based server. The cloud-based server may store respective information associated with various other devices that belong to the specified group of devices into which the first device also belongs, for example devices that all belong to the user of the first device, or are designated as being used by the user of the first device. For example, if the user owns a portable computer, a tablet device and a smart phone, the server (central location) may store respective information associated each of these three devices. The server may also have the ability to communicate, e.g., push, data to each of these three devices. The information (associated with the first pairing) communicated by the first device to the cloud-based server may comprise various items relevant to the accessory device and/or to establishing a connection with the accessory device, such as link keys, addresses, and/or other information. The information may be communicated automatically as a result of the pairing between the first device and the accessory device, or the communication of the information may be triggered by user input on the first device or a request for the information by the cloud-based server. If the first device uses BT to connect to the accessory device, the BT software stack may operate to convey the information to the cloud-based server. The first device may communicate with the cloud-based server by various means, such as wired or wireless connections to the Internet, e.g., using Wi-Fi, LTE, wired Internet, or related technologies. The cloud-based server may store the information and/or distribute the received information among one or more (or all other) devices associated with / belonging to the specified (or designated) group of devices, e.g. devices associated with the user account of the user of the first device. Thus, as shown at <NUM>, the information associated with the accessory device (and the first pairing request) may be propagated from the first device to other devices in the specified group, e.g. to other devices associated with the same user, such as the second device. In some embodiments the second device may then store the information.

The information associated with the pairing (request) of the accessory device and the first device may also be referenced as link information associated with the pairing, and hence include information pertaining to both the accessory device and the first device as associated with the first pairing. Accordingly, the link information may include a first portion pertaining to the first device and a second portions pertaining to the accessory device. For example, the first portion of the link information may include security credentials of the first device, and the second portion of the link information may include security credentials of the accessory device. Furthermore, the first device also may send the link information associated with one or more other user devices (also referred to as second link information) to the accessory device. By providing this (second) link information to the accessory device, the accessory device is enabled to automatically connect (without having to undergo a pairing procedure which may or may not require user intervention) with a second user device of the other specified user devices, using the first link information previously stored at the second user device and the second link information previously stored at the accessory device.

As shown in the flow diagram of <FIG>, the first device connects with the server (or, more generally, with an external device capable of receiving, storing and sharing information, including the link information, about other devices), to establish what information about other devices is stored on the server (<NUM>). However, it should be noted that at any point in time the first device may already have previously received the second link information, and in that case the first device need not be connected to the server as it may already be storing this information. In other words, the first device may already have stored link information associated with (or corresponding to) the one or more other user devices, and may use this locally stored history to create the connection credentials for the one or more other devices. Accordingly, <NUM> may not need to take place and be omitted in such scenarios.

At <NUM>, certain conditions and/or actions may trigger an indication for the second user device to pair with the accessory device. For example, in some embodiments, the second device may determine its proximity to the accessory device. Proximity between the second device and the accessory device may be calculated using various metrics, such as signal strength, and may be compared to a threshold value to determine whether to initiate proximity-based pairing. In case of proximity-based pairing, if the accessory device is determined to be at least within specified proximity of the accessory device, at <NUM> the second device may automatically connect with the accessory device (without requiring a pairing procedure) or may present the user with an option to pair the second device to the accessory device, e.g., by prompting the user with a pop-up UI inquiring whether to connect to the accessory device, as desired. The distance used to trigger pairing or connecting can be set as any desired or specified distance. In some implementations, the proximity may be set to a distance determined to be a distance at which pairing/connecting is expected. User input on the second device, e.g., through user interaction with buttons and/or a display, may indicate a desire to pair with the accessory device. Alternately, the second user device may simply connect with the accessory device using the previously stored link information (at both the second user device and at the accessory device as described above) without requiring any user interaction and/or without requiring any multi-step pairing procedure.

As mentioned above, at <NUM> the second user device may operate to pair with the accessory device in response to the indication received at <NUM>. As the accessory device may already be actively paired with the first device, the second device may communicate a disconnect message to the first device (e.g., over the Internet or through the cloud-based server) for the purpose of transitioning the accessory device from the first user device to the second user device. In some implementations, the accessory may alternatively communicate the disconnect message. The second user device may use the information received at <NUM>/<NUM>, such as link key information associated with the accessory device, in order to connect with the accessory device. Similarly, the accessory device may use the information received at <NUM>, such as link key information associated with the second user device, in order to connect with the second user device. This enables the second user device and the accessory device to more easily and efficiently connect with each other without requiring a pairing procedure. Thus, the accessory device may disconnect from the first user device and may establish a new connection with the second user device.

<FIG> and <FIG> provide an illustration of how the pairing process described in <FIG> may be used to connect user devices to accessory devices via short range wireless communications according to one set of embodiments. As shown in <FIG>, when a user pairs an accessory device <NUM>, shown here as a headset, via BLUETOOTH™ (BT) to any one of the user's registered devices, shown here as a computer <NUM>, e.g. an iMac™, the device, e.g., through the BT stack, may opt to send the link information associated with the pairing (of user device <NUM> with accessory device <NUM>) via the cloud <NUM> to other devices in the user's registered account. As an example, a second user device <NUM> is shown in <FIG> as a smart phone. If any of the other user devices, e.g. user device <NUM>, intend to use the accessory device <NUM>, then the link information, e.g. link keys, may be relayed to the accessory device <NUM> from the currently connected device <NUM>. Then, as shown in <FIG>, when the accessory device <NUM> is moved into pairing proximity range of the second user device <NUM>, the disconnect message may be sent over the cloud <NUM> to the currently connected device <NUM>, enabling proximity switching. Accordingly, accessory device <NUM> may be connected with second user device <NUM> using the link information associated with second user device <NUM> that had been provided to the accessory device <NUM> and the link information associated with accessory device <NUM> that had been provided to second user device <NUM>. Thus, the technique obviates the need for a more lengthy pairing process, either automatic or manual, that requires an exchange - one or both ways - of link information (e.g. keys).

<FIG> shows a communications system with devices connected and paired according to some other embodiments. More specifically, <FIG> provides an illustration of the types of wired and wireless connections that may be established in order to allow user devices and accessory devices to be easily connected and/or paired with each other, respectively. A user device <NUM> and an accessory device <NUM> may be connected over a secure transport such as USB <NUM> (shown) or secure Wi-Fi (more generally a secure wired or wireless connection), and the existing transport may be used for exchanging Bluetooth security credentials (more generally link information corresponding to establishing a pairing between the devices according to an insecure and/or short range wireless communication protocol) between devices <NUM> and <NUM>. In case a BLUETOOTH™ connection (or more generally a connection or pairing according to an insecure and/or short range wireless communication protocol) is desired between more than two devices, device <NUM> that has a connection with devices <NUM> and <NUM> may act as a relay to transfer BLUETOOTH™ security credentials (more generally link information corresponding to establishing a pairing between the devices according to the insecure and/or short range wireless communication protocol) over the existing BLUETOOTH™ (or more generally the insecure and/or short range wireless communication protocol) connections to bring up the third connection between devices <NUM> and <NUM> without devices <NUM> and <NUM> having to go through a pairing procedure.

Some embodiments of the system shown in <FIG> may include a hand held device <NUM> connected to both a first type of accessory device <NUM> and to a second type of device <NUM>, for example a wearable device <NUM>. The existing BLUETOOTH™ (BT) connection(s) <NUM> and <NUM> may be used to exchange BT security credentials of the first type of accessory device <NUM> and the wearable device <NUM> between the first type of accessory device <NUM> and the wearable device <NUM>. Devices <NUM> and <NUM> may then connect with each other under certain conditions without requiring a pairing procedure. In another example, a hand held device <NUM> may be connected to a display device <NUM> (e.g. a CarPlay™ device) over USB using an iAP™ protocol. The existing USB connection may be used to exchange BT security credentials and automatically connect the hand held device <NUM> and the display device <NUM>. In yet another example, a hand held device may be connected to a second type of accessory device over a secure Wi-Fi connection. The existing Wi-Fi connection may be used to exchange BT security credentials and automatically connect the hand held device and second type accessory devices.

Pursuant to the above, the following may be performed to facilitate pairing as described, for example, in <FIG>, <FIG>, <FIG>, and <FIG>. First, a pairing type may be determined. Based upon the device types and application, one of a number of different types of pairings may be selected/identified. A first type of pairing may be pairing using a link key. This pairing method may be used for classic pairing between BR/EDR (Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate) devices or dual mode devices, where link key is generated on one device and sent to other device for easy pairing. A second type of pairing may be pairing using long term key. This pairing method may be used for LE (Low Energy) pairing between two dual mode devices or LE devices, where LTK (Long Term Key) and other LE pairing related keys are generated on both devices and then exchanged with one another. A third type of pairing may be pairing using OOB (Out of Band) data. This pairing method may be used when either of the above methods are not possible to select for application specific reason. When this pairing type is selected, OOB keys (e.g. as defined by OOB association model in BLUETOOTH™ core spec <NUM> and later) may be generated and exchanged over OOB transport. An application running on the user device side may provide the remote device information and pairing type to the BT stack and may request to generate security keys for the specific pairing type. Fourth, the link keys may be exchanged. The generated security keys may be exchanged over existing non-BT transport and stored in the respective security database.

Claim 1:
A method for wireless communications, the method comprising:
establishing, by a first wireless device (<NUM>), a first direct short-range wireless link (<NUM>) with an accessory device (<NUM>);
sharing, by the first wireless device (<NUM>) with the accessory device (<NUM>) over the first direct short -range wireless link (<NUM>), a first item of link information associated with a second wireless device (<NUM>) different from the first wireless device (<NUM>) the first and the second wireless devices belonging to a group of trusted devices;
sharing, by the first wireless device (<NUM>) with the second wireless device (<NUM>), a second item of link information associated with the accessory device (<NUM>);
wherein the sharing of the first item of link information with the accessory device (<NUM>) and the sharing of the second item of link information with the second wireless device (<NUM>) enables the accessory device (<NUM>) and the second wireless device (<NUM>) to subsequently establish a second direct short-range wireless link with each other without the accessory device (<NUM>) and the second wireless device (<NUM>) engaging in a separate pairing procedure.