Wireless HD MAC frame format

• US 20080192726A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SiBEAM, Inc. (Lattice Semiconductor Corporation)
• Inventors: Shung, Chuen-Shen, Gilbert, Jeffrey M., Wang, Karen, Mahesh, Kumar, Krishnaswami, Karthik
• Granted Patent: US 9,065,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6448 Medium Access Control [MAC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation

Abstract

A media access controller (MAC) generates a composite packet having an optimized format for carrying audio, video, and data traffic. A header portion of the composite packet is encoded separately from a data portion of the composite packet. A physical device interface (PHY) is coupled to the MAC. The PHY encodes and decodes between a digital signal and a modulated analog signal. The PHY comprises a high rate physical layer circuit (HRP) and a low rate physical layer circuit (LRP). A radio frequency (RF) transmitter is coupled to the PHY to transmit data.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a media access controller (MAC) for generating a composite packet having a format configured to carry audio, video, and data traffic, a header portion of the composite packet encoded separately from a data portion of the composite packet;

a physical device interface (PHY) coupled to the MAC, the PHY to encode and decode between a digital signal and a modulated analog signal, the PHY comprising a high rate physical layer circuit (HRP) and a low rate physical layer circuit (LRP); and

a radio frequency (RF) transmitter coupled to the PHY to transmit data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes up to seven sub-packets.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the composite packet includes four video sub-packets, one audio sub-packet, one data sub-packet, and one control sub-packet.

4. The apparatus, of claim 2 wherein the composite packet includes up to four video sub-packets.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein a PHY header of each sub-packet includes an MSC field, and a length field, wherein a MAC Ext Header of each sub-packet includes a type of sub-packet field and an ACK field.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the sub-packets share a common MAC and PHY header.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein each sub-packet is encoded according to a different Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field, the MCS selected based on a data rate and a level of robustness required by the type of traffic.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein video traffic is transmitted with faster and less robust MCS, and audio, data, and control traffic is transmitted with slower and more robust MCS.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes ACK group bits for at least all but one of the sub-packets, the ACK group bits determining which sub-packets'"'"' CRCs are combined into returned ACK bits.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the acknowledgement to the composite packet includes one ACK bit for each video sub-packet, and one ACK bit for audio, data, or control sub-packets.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes a sub-payload field comprising a length field, a sequence number field, a first fragment field, a last fragment field, and a MAC service data unit (MSDU) field.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet is transmitted using an Inter Packet Period (IPP) to determine the start of sub-packets within a multi-packet CTB, the IPP determined as IPP=Packet Duration+ACK duration+2*SIFS Duration.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes a beacon packet with a beacon duration extended at the expense of a Random Access Time Block (RATB).

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes up to seven sub-packets per packet, each sub-packet having its own type information, each sub-packet having its own CRC.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes up to seven sub-packets grouped into up to five ACK groups, each ACK group is only acknowledged if all CRCs in the group pass.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein data delivery is coordinated between a transmitter and a receiver, the receiver knowing when the transmitter is sending data packets versus beam search packets.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the composite packet includes a Long Omni LRPDU format used for beacons and unscheduled packets and a Short Omni LRPDU format used for contention period and scheduled packets.

22. The method of claim 15 wherein the composite packet includes a sub-payload field comprising a length field, a sequence number field, a first fragment field, a last fragment field, and a MAC service data unit (MSDU) field.

23. The method of claim 15 wherein the composite packet is transmitted using an Inter Packet Period (IPP) to determine the start of sub-packets within a multi-packet CTB, the IPP determined as IPP=Packet Duration+ACK duration+2*SIFS Duration.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the composite packet includes up to seven sub-packets per packet, each sub-packet having its own type information, each sub-packet having its own CRC.

25. The method of claim 15 wherein the composite packet includes up to seven sub-packets grouped into up to five ACK groups, each ACK group is only acknowledged if all CRCs in the group pass.

18. A method comprising:

generating a composite packet with a wireless HD MAC frame format configured to carry audio, video, and data traffic;

encoding a header portion of the composite packet separately from a data portion of the composite packet,

wherein the composite packet includes four video sub-packets, one audio sub-packet, one data sub-packet, and one control sub-packet, the sub-packets sharing a common MAC and PHY header.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein each sub-packet is encoded according to a different Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS), the MCS selected based on a data rate and a level of robustness required by the type of traffic.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

transmitting video traffic with faster and less robust MCS; and

transmitting audio, data, or control traffic with slower and more robust MCS.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the acknowledgement to the composite packet includes one ACK bit for each video sub-packet, and one ACK bit for audio, data, and control sub-packets.