Packet concatenation in wireless networks

• US 20050237992A1
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Airgo Networks, Inc. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goel, Sandesh, Raissinia, Alireza, Jones, Vincent K., Mishra, Partho P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,733,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2854 Wide area networks, e.g. public data networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365

Abstract

A wireless network includes a transmitting device and a plurality of receiving devices. The transmitting device is configured to receive a plurality of data packets, including a first data packet and a second data packet, prepare a preamble, prepare a signal field for each of the plurality of data packets, including a first signal field based on the first data packet and a second signal field based on the second data packet, and broadcast the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet.

Claims

1. A wireless network, comprising:

a transmitting device; and

a plurality of receiving devices;

wherein the transmitting device is configured to;

receive a plurality of data packets, including a first data packet and a second data packet;

prepare a preamble;

prepare a signal field for each of the plurality of data packets, including a first signal field based on the first data packet and a second signal field based on the second data packet; and

broadcast the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device is further configured to:

prepare a standard signal field; and

broadcast the standard signal field as part of the concatenated packet.

3. The network of claim 2, wherein the transmitting device is configured to broadcast the preamble, the standard signal field, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet in order and wherein the first signal field is immediately followed in time by the first data packet and the second signal field is immediately followed in time by the second data packet.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device is configured to:

receive a third data packet of the plurality of data packets while broadcasting the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet; and

broadcast the third data packet and its corresponding signal field as part of the concatenated packet.

5. The network of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device is configured to transmit the first data packet and the second data packet to different of the plurality of receiving devices.

6. The network of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device is configured to transmit the first data packet and the second data packet to different of the plurality of receiving devices at different transmission rates.

7. The network of claim 1, wherein the network comprises an 802.11-based network.

8. The network of claim 7, wherein at least a first one of the receiving devices operates according to a first acknowledge policy.

9. The network of claim 8, wherein at least a second one of the plurality of receiving devices operates according to a second acknowledgement policy and wherein the first and the second acknowledgement policies are different.

10. The network of claim 9, wherein the first and second acknowledgement policies are selected from a group consisting of Immediate Acknowledge, Block Acknowledge, and No Acknowledge.

11. The network of claim 7, wherein at least a first one of the plurality of receiving devices is configured to correctly receive concatenated packets and at least a second one of the plurality of receiving devices is not configured to receive concatenated packets.

12. The network of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device is further configured to transmit the remaining data packets in the plurality of data packets and the corresponding signal fields as part of the concatenated packet.

13. The network of claim 12, wherein the plurality of data packets comprise at least 1000 data packets.

14. A concatenated packet configured for transmission in a packet-based wireless network, the packet comprising:

a preamble;

a plurality of data packets; and

a plurality of signal fields;

wherein each of the plurality of data packets is preceded in time by one of the plurality of signal fields, wherein a first one of the plurality of data packets is directed to a first receiving device, and wherein a second one of the plurality of data packets is directed to a second receiving device.

15. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein the plurality of data packets comprise at least 1000 data packets.

16. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of data packets is immediately preceded in time by one of the plurality of signal fields.

17. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein the first one of the plurality of data packets is directed to the first receiving device at a first data rate and the second one of the plurality of data packets is directed to the second receiving device at a second data rate.

18. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein each signal field includes at least a rate field that identifies the data rate of the data packet that the signal field precedes in the concatenated packet and a length field that identifies the length of the data packet that the signal field precedes.

19. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein the concatenated packet is configured for transmission in an 802.11-based network.

20. The concatenated packet of claim 19, further comprising a standard signal field.

21. The concatenated packet of claim 20, wherein the standard signal field includes a reserved bit and wherein a state of the reserved bit signals a concatenated packet.

22. The concatenated packet of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of signal fields includes an error check field relating to its contents.

23. The concatenated packet of claim 14, wherein each signal field includes a continuation field having at least two states and wherein a change in the state of the continuation field from one signal field to a subsequent signal field indicates that the data packet following the subsequent signal field is the last data packet of the concatenated packet.

24. A method of communicating in a packet-based wireless network, comprising:

at a transmitting device, receiving a plurality of data packets;

concatenating the plurality of packets into a concatenated packet;

appending a preamble to the concatenated packet; and

broadcasting the concatenated packet to the network;

wherein each of the plurality of data packets in the concatenated packet is preceded by a signal field, the contents of which relate to the subsequent data packet.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of data packets comprise at least 1000 data packets.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein each signal field includes at least a rate field that identifies the data rate of the data packet that the signal field precedes in the concatenated packet and a length field that identifies the length of the data packet that the signal field precedes.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein each signal field includes a continuation field having at least two states and wherein a change in the state of the continuation field from one extended signal field to an immediately subsequent signal field indicates that the data packet following the subsequent signal field is the last data packet of the concatenated packet.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein each signal field includes a reserve field having a plurality of states and wherein a state of the reserve field implements at least one function selected from a set of functions consisting of space-time coding, beam-forming, adaptive bandwidth reception, and compression initialization.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the network comprises an 802.11-based network.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising including a standard signal field in the concatenated packet.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising, at a receiving device, using the signal field to determine an amount of time to yield the network.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising using one of the plurality of signal fields to override the amount of time to yield the network.

33. The method of claim 29, further comprising employing a MAC-protection mechanism with respect to at least one network element.

34. The method of claim 24, wherein broadcasting the concatenated packet to the network comprises broadcasting the concatenated packet to a plurality of receivers and wherein at least a first one of the plurality of data packets is directed to a first one of the plurality of receivers and wherein at least a second one of the plurality of data packets is directed to a second one of the plurality of receivers.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the first one of the plurality of data packets is directed to the first one of the plurality of receivers at a first data rate, wherein the second one of the plurality of data packets is directed to the second one of the plurality of receivers at a second data rate, and wherein the first data rate and the second data rate are different.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

from the transmitting device, requesting an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers; and

in the absence of an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers, rebroadcasting the concatenated packet.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

from the transmitting device, requesting an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers; and

in the absence of an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers, rebroadcasting the acknowledgement request.

38. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

from the transmitting device, requesting an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers; and

in the absence of an acknowledgement from the first one of the plurality of receivers, rebroadcasting only the data packets of the plurality of data packets directed to the first one of the plurality of receivers.

39. The method of claim 24, wherein receiving a plurality of data packets comprises receiving at least first and second data packets, the method further comprising:

receiving at least a third data packet; and

concatenating the third data packet into the concatenated packet while broadcasting the concatenated packet to the network.

40. The method of claim 24, wherein at least one of the plurality of signal fields includes an error check field, the method further comprising, at a receiving device, using the error check field of a particular signal field to evaluate for correctness the particular signal field.

41. The method of claim 24, wherein at least one of the plurality of signal fields includes an error check field, the method further comprising, at a receiving device, using the error check field of a particular signal field to determine whether the concatenated packet is in fact a concatenated packet.

42. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

evaluating at least one network transmission characteristic; and

using the at least one network transmission characteristic to alter a maximum duration of a subsequent concatenated packet.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the network transmission characteristic comprises time-variation.

44. A concatenated packet configured for transmission in an 802.11 network, the packet comprising:

a plurality of data fields;

a plurality of extended signal fields, each extended signal field relating to a corresponding one of the data fields, wherein each extended signal field includes information relating to its corresponding data field;

a standard signal field having information relating to the concatenated packet; and

a preamble;

wherein the preamble and the standard signal field precede in time the plurality of data fields and the plurality of extended signal fields.

45. The concatenated packet of claim 44, wherein the plurality of data packets comprise at least 1000 data packets.

46. The concatenated packet of claim 44, wherein one of the plurality of data fields comprises a MAC management frame.