Patent ID: 8514798

Claim:
A communications apparatus with multiple radio access technologies (RATs), comprising: a first RAT module, with a first communications interface conforming to a first wireless communications protocol and transceiving radio frequency (RF) signals in a first cellular network through an antenna; a second RAT module, with a second communications interface conforming to a second wireless communications protocol, which is different from the first wireless communications protocol, and transceiving RF signals in a second cellular network through the antenna; and an arbiter, receiving a first request from the first RAT module, requesting permission to use the antenna for a first channel activity, receiving a second request from the second RAT module, requesting permission to use the antenna for a second channel activity, obtaining a priority configuration for the first channel activity versus the second channel activity when the second channel activity collides with the first channel activity, and responding to one of the first second RAT modules with an acknowledgement message and to the other of the first second RAT modules with a rejection message based on the obtained priority configuration, wherein the first or second request carries timing information regarding a start time and duration of the first or second channel activity, and the arbiter determines whether the second channel activity collide with the first channel activity according to the timing information; wherein the first or second request further carries timing information regarding a start time of a forthcoming first/second channel activity, and the arbiter further receives an indication signal from the first RAT module receiving the acknowledgement message, indicating that a corresponding channel activity has been completed, estimates an available time interval up to a nearest forthcoming first/second channel activity to be performed, and transmits an acknowledgement message to the second RAT module that has received the rejection message for the collided channel activity when the duration for performing the collided channel activity fits within the available time interval, to enable the second RAT module to perform the collided channel activity via the antenna during the available time interval.