Reliable transport layer protocol in low performance 8-bit microcontrollers

• US 20030018793A1
• Filed: 07/19/2001
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oscar Mora
• Original Assignee: Oscar Mora
• Inventors: Mora, Oscar
• Application Number:
  US09/682,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018793A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1438 Negotiation of transmission parameters prior to communication modified according to link quality H04L1/0001
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• 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 69/164 Adaptation or special uses of UDP protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A reliable communication protocol RUDP is provided to transfer data between two systems connected in a network. Working over the unreliable UDP transport layer protocol, the RUDP protocol adds an acknowledging mechanism to otherwise unreliable UDP packets. Contrary to the TCP transport layer protocol, which establishes a connection before any data transfer, the RUDP is used to transfer short amounts of information or messages, so a connectionless communication is used. In a connectionless context the complexity of the encoding-decoding algorithm and the amount of memory consumed by the protocol is reduced. Such characteristics makes the RUDP protocol suitable for its implementation in systems with limited memory and speed, like low processing power 8-bit microcontrollers. Furthermore, by programming the RUDP protocol over the UDP protocol, its implementation in a personal computer can be made with common programming tools.

Claims

1. A method for providing a reliable connectionless protocol to transfer short pieces of information, the method comprising the steps of:

Using a data transfer process using a layers stack model consisting of multiple layers; and

Adding an intermediate transport layer with the following fields, type of packet and packet ID.

2. The method in claim 1 in which said type of packet field is a single byte.

3. The method in claim 1 in which said packet ID is a single byte.

4. The method in claim 1 in which said type of data field has three possible meanings:

that it is a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;

that it is a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and

that it is a packet that is an acknowledge response.

5. The method in claim 1 in which said Packet ID has three possible meanings:

it is a number choosen by the packet sending means if it is in a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;

the field is ignored if it is in a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and

it is the packet ID of the data packet being acknowledged if it is in a packet that is an acknowledge response.

6. The method in claim 1 in which includes the following steps comprising:

Sending a packet with the acknowledgement request;

Turning on a timer means;

Waiting for an acknowledgement for the sent packet;

Resending the packet if timer means exceed set response time without receiving an acknowledgement;

Repeating the previous two steps until acknowledgement is received or a set number of retries is reached; and

Reporting the results.

7. The method in claim 1 in which includes the following steps comprising:

Receiving a packet with an acknowledgement request;

Checking to see if it is a duplicate packet by comparing the packet number with the previously received packet;

Generating an acknowledgement; and

Processing the data.

8. The method in claim 1 in which includes processing with an 8-bit microprocesser.

9. The method in claim 1 in which includes the following steps comprising using an UDP transport protocol.

10. A computer program wherein the base component has interfaces and the program code for:

Using a data transfer process using a layers stack model consisting of multiple layers; and

Adding an an intermediate transport layer with the following fields, type of packet and packet ID.

11. The computer program in claim 10 in which said type of packet field is a single byte.

12. The computer program in claim 10 in which said packet ID is a single byte.

13. The computer program in claim 10 in which said type of data field has three possible meanings:

that it is a picket that contains data that must be acknowledged;

that it is a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and

that it is a packet that is an acknowledge.

14. The computer program in claim 10 in which said Packet ID has three possible meanings:

it is a number choosen by the packet sending means if it is in a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;

the field is ignored if it is in a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and

it is the packet ID of the data packet being acknowledged if it is in a packet that is an acknowledge response.

15. The computer program in claim 10 further comprising:

Computer code for sending a packet with the acknowledgement request;

Computer code for turning on a timer means;

Computer code for waiting for acknowledgement for the sent packet;

Computer code for resending the packet if timer means exceed set response time before acknowledgement is received;

Computer code for repeating the previous two steps until acknowledgement is received or a set number of retries is reached; and

Computer code for reporting the results.

16. The computer program in claim 10 further comprising:

Computer code for receiving a packet with an acknowledgement request;

Computer code for checking to see if it is a duplicate packet by comparing the packet number with the previously received packet;

Computer code for generating an acknowledgement; and

Computer code for processing the data.

17. The computer program in claim 10 further comprising using an UDP transport protocol.