Apparatus to speculatively identify packets for transmission and method therefor

• US 20040100981A1
• Filed: 11/25/2002
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Kitchin, Ducan M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,385,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/428
• 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: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information

Abstract

Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a system includes: shared memory. The system includes the capability to transfer to a router processing unit a fragment of a received frame and a pointer to the fragment in shared memory.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a packet selector to speculate and select at least two packets, one of which is to be transmitted.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet selector is further adapted to speculate and select the at least two packets prior to receiving any information regarding a prior transmission.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the packet selector is adapted to speculate and select the at least two packets prior to receiving a success or fail indicator from the most recent transmission.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transmitter to transmit one of the at least two packets.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the transmitter is adapted to determine which of the at least two packets to transmit based on information regarding a prior transmission.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the transmitter is adapted to determine which of the at least two packets to transmit based on a success or fail indicator of a prior transmission.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the transmitter is adapted to determine which of the at least two packets to transmit based on a success or fail indicator of the most prior transmission.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the transmitter is adapted to determine which of the at least two packets to transmit based on a quality indicator of a channel of a prior transmission.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the transmitter is adapted to determine which of the at least two packets to transmit based on a signal to noise ratio of the channel.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet selector is adapted to identify three packets and provide the three packets to a transmitter along with conditional information to be used by the transmitter to determine which of the three packets is to be transmitted.

11. A method comprising:

determining conditional information to select which of at least two packets are to be transmitted.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining conditional information occurs prior to receiving a success indication of a most recent transmission.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing the at least two packets and the conditional information to a wireless transmitter.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting and transmitting one of the at least two packets based on the conditional information.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting a packet to transmit if a prior transmission is successful.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting a different packet to transmit if a prior transmission is not successful.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein conditional information is determined prior to completion of a current transmission.

18. A wireless network comprising:

at least two nodes adapted to wirelessly transmit packets, wherein each node includes a packet selector to speculate which of at least two packets may be transmitted and provide conditional information used to select which of the at least two packets is transmitted.

19. The wireless network of claim 18;

further comprising at least one base station to communication with the at least two nodes, wherein the at least two nodes comprise a cellular transceiver.

20. The wireless network of claim 18, wherein the wireless network comprises a wireless local area network.

21. The wireless network of claim 20, further comprising a server adapted to communicate with the at least two nodes.

22. The wireless network of claim 20, wherein the at least two nodes are adapted to transmit packets to each other.

23. An article comprising a storage medium having stored thereon instructions, that, when executed by a computing platform, results in:

providing a transmitter with at least two packets of data for transmission; and

providing a transmitter with conditional information to determine which of the at least two packets is transmitted.

24. The article of claim 23, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in selecting one of the at least two packets for transmission using information associated with the most recent transmission attempt.

25. The article of claim 23, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in speculating as to which packets should be selected to provide the at least two packets prior to receiving information associated with the most recent transmission attempt.