Patent ID: 8626144

Claim:
A method of enabling communications between a Bluetooth low energy master communication device in a vehicle and a slave communication device, the slave communication device being both Bluetooth low energy enabled and Bluetooth high energy enabled and includes an identifier used to authenticate the slave communication device during Bluetooth communications, the method comprising the steps of: successfully pairing the slave communication device with a Bluetooth high energy master communication device in the vehicle, the slave communication device capable of simultaneously communicating with the Bluetooth high energy master communication device and the Bluetooth low energy master communication device; storing in a memory associated with at least the Bluetooth high energy master communication device the identifier of the slave communication device when it is successfully paired with the Bluetooth high energy master communication device; communicating the identifier to the Bluetooth low energy master communication device; the Bluetooth low energy master communication device identifying an advertising event broadcast by the slave communication device, the advertising event relating to a notification by the slave communication device of the availability of its services; verifying whether the identifier of the slave communication device matches the stored identifier; and autonomously establishing wireless communications between the Bluetooth low energy master communication device and the slave communication device without a manual pairing operation in response to an identifier of the slave communication device matching the stored identifier.