Method and apparatus for fast or negative acknowledgement in a mobile communication system

• US 20080056303A1
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Sebire, Guillaume, Navratil, David
• Application Number:
  US11/893,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20080056303A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1614 using bitmaps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1664 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with payload signals; piggybacking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/125 Arrangements for preventing errors in the return channel

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided to determine whether to include acknowledgement information within radio link control/medium access control (RLC/MAC) data transfer blocks. If the acknowledgement information is to be included in the data transfer blocks it may have a variable length. The acknowledgement information may also be encoded independently of all other parts of the RLC/MAC data transfer block.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

including acknowledgement information in a data transfer block, and

encoding the acknowledgement information independently of at least part of the data transfer block.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a variable length acknowledgement bitmap.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data transfer block comprises at least one data block.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the data transfer block comprises a header comprising protocol information.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the header indicates the acknowledgement information is included in the data transfer block.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the header indicates the length of the acknowledgement information.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises an address identifying a temporary block flow to which the acknowledgement information is related.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a starting sequence number.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage structure embodying computer program code thereon for execution by a computer processor, wherein said computer program code comprises instructions for performing a method comprising:

including acknowledgement information in a data transfer block, and

encoding the acknowledgement information independently of at least part of the data transfer block.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a variable length acknowledgement bitmap.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a module configured to include acknowledgement information in a data transfer block; and

a modulator configured to encode the acknowledgement information independently of the data transfer block.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a variable length acknowledgement bitmap.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the data transfer block comprises at least one data block.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the data transfer block comprises a header comprising protocol information.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the-header indicates the acknowledgement information is included in the data transfer block.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the header indicates the length of the acknowledgement information.

17. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises an address identifying a temporary block flow to which the acknowledgement information is related.

18. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a starting sequence number.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

means for including acknowledgement information in a data transfer block; and

means for encoding the acknowledgement information independently of the data transfer block.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a variable length acknowledgement bitmap.

21. A system, comprising:

a transmitting entity; and

a receiving entity;

wherein the transmitting entity comprises a module for including acknowledgement information in a data transfer block for transmission to the receiving entity;

wherein the transmitting entity comprises a modulator for encoding the acknowledgement information independently of the data transfer block.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the acknowledgement information comprises a variable length acknowledgement bitmap.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein the data transfer block comprises at least one data block.

24. The system according to claim 21, wherein the data transfer block comprises a header comprising protocol information.