Message reordering timers

• US 10,530,700 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2016
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC (Strong Force Intellectual Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC (Strong Force Intellectual Capital, LLC)
• Inventors: Ho, Tracey, Meng, Chun
• Primary Examiner(s): Sefcheck, Gregory B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ulysse, Jael M
• Application Number:
  US15/060,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20170012884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,404 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0076 Distributed coding, e.g. network coding, involving channel coding coding in both space and time H04L1/0618; cooperative diversity H04B7/022
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1819 with retransmission of additional or different redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1858 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/52 Multiprotocol routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/127 by using congestion prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/16 in connection oriented networks, e.g. frame relay
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/27 Evaluation or update of window size, e.g. using information derived from acknowledged [ACK] packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 : for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/552 : by ensuring the integrity of packets received through redundant connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 : Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 : Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 : Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 : Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/535 : based on resource usage policies

Abstract

A method for data communication from a first node to a second node over a data channel coupling the first node and the second node includes receiving data messages at the second node, the messages belonging to a set of data messages transmitted in a sequential order from the first node, sending feedback messages from the second node to the first node, the feedback messages characterizing a delivery status of the set of data messages at the second node, including maintaining a set of one or more timers according to occurrences of a number of delivery order events, the maintaining including modifying a status of one or more timers of the set of timers based on occurrences of the number of delivery order events, and deferring sending of said feedback messages until expiry of one or more of the set of one or more timers.

Claims

1. A method for data communication between a sending node and a receiving node over a data channel coupling the sending node and the receiving node, the method comprising:

receiving, at the receiving node, data messages belonging to a set of data messages transmitted in a sequential order from the sending node;

sending, from the receiving node to the sending node, feedback messages characterizing a delivery status of the set of data messages at the receiving node, including;

starting, at the receiving node, a first timer upon receipt of a first data message associated with a first position in the sequential order prior to receipt of one or more missing data messages associated with positions preceding the first position in the sequential order,

delaying sending, from the receiving node to the sending node, an acknowledgement indicating a gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the first timer,

when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap from the receiving node to the sending node,

starting a second timer upon receipt of at least one but not all of the one or more missing data messages before expiration of the first timer,

delaying sending, from the receiving node to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the second timer, and

when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap from the receiving node to the sending node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second first timer, sending the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node when not all of the one or more missing data messages have been received upon expiry of the second timer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, sending the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node upon expiry of the first timer when none of the one or more missing data messages have been received.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, from the receiving node to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages when none of the one or more missing data messages are received and the first timer is expired.

7. A system for data communication over a data channel coupling a plurality of nodes, the system comprising:

a receiving node of the plurality of nodes configured to;

receive data messages belonging to a set of data messages transmitted in a sequential order from a sending node of the plurality of nodes,

send, to the sending node, feedback messages characterizing a delivery status of the set of data messages at the receiving node, including;

starting a first timer upon receipt of a first data message associated with a first position in the sequential order prior to receipt of one or more missing data messages associated with positions preceding the first position in the sequential order,

delaying sending, to the sending node, an acknowledgement indicating a gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the first timer,

when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap from to the sending node,

starting a second timer upon receipt of at least one but not all of the one or more missing data messages before expiration of the first timer,

delaying sending, to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the second timer, and

when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap to the sending node.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving node is further configured to, when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second first timer, send the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving node is further configured to send said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node when not all of the one or more missing data messages have been received upon expiry of the second timer.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving node is further configured to, when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, send the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving node is further configured to send said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node upon expiry of the first timer when none of the one or more missing data messages have been received.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving node is further configured to send, to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages when none of the one or more missing data messages are received and the first timer is expired.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions for causing a receiving node in a data communication system to:

receive data messages belonging to a set of data messages transmitted in a sequential order from a sending node of the plurality of nodes,

send, to the sending node, feedback messages characterizing a delivery status of the set of data messages at the receiving node, including;

starting a first timer upon receipt of a first data message associated with a first position in the sequential order prior to receipt of one or more missing data messages associated with positions preceding the first position in the sequential order,

delaying sending, to the sending node, an acknowledgement indicating a gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the first timer,

when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap from to the sending node,

starting a second timer upon receipt of at least one but not all of the one or more missing data messages before expiration of the first timer,

delaying sending, to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages until expiration of the second timer, and

when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second timer, refraining from sending the acknowledgement indicating the gap to the sending node.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the receiving node in the data communication system to, when all of the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the second first timer, send the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the receiving node in the data communication system to send said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node when not all of the one or more missing data messages have been received upon expiry of the second timer.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the receiving node in the data communication system to, when the one or more missing data messages are received before expiration of the first timer, send the feedback messages indicating a successful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the receiving node in the data communication system to send said feedback messages indicating an unsuccessful delivery of the set of data messages at the receiving node upon expiry of the first timer when none of the one or more missing data messages have been received.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the receiving node in the data communication system to send, to the sending node, the acknowledgement indicating the gap corresponding to the one or more missing data messages when none of the one or more missing data messages are received and the first timer is expired.