Retransmission and retransmission request in data communication systems

• US 20090089638A1
• Filed: 09/12/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lantiq Deutschland GMBH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: VOLKENING, Ingo, POVAZANEC, Juraj, HU, Chunfeng, HORVAT, Michael, SCHEDELBECK, Gert, SCHOPPMEIER, Dietmar, HEISE, Bernd
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,393 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0007 by modifying the frame length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0085 Formatting with cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1628 List acknowledgements, i.e. the acknowledgement message consisting of a list of identifiers, e.g. of sequence numbers H04L1/1614 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1874 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements

Abstract

Embodiments related to retransmission and a retransmission request are described and depicted.

Claims

1. A method comprising

receiving a plurality of cells;

providing for each cell or a group of the plurality of cells an identification;

transmitting the plurality of cells from a first transceiver unit to a second transceiver unit;

transmitting a request for retransmission from the second transceiver unit to the first transceiver unit, the request comprising one or more identifications to indicate a retransmission request for one or more cells;

processing the request for retransmission at the first transceiver unit to identify the cells for retransmission based on the identification; and

retransmitting the one or more identified cells.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing an identification comprises providing for each of the plurality of cells an identification.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing an identification for a group of cells comprises:

grouping a plurality of cells to provide a macro cell; and

providing an identification for the macro cell.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the one or more cells to be retransmitted based on a FEC processing or a CRC processing or a HEC processing or any combinations of a FEC, CRC and HEC processing.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the CRC processing comprises a CRC calculation over each complete cell or a CRC calculation over each complete group of cells.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

providing a cell header compression, the cell header compression reducing the cell header by n bits; and

using at least a part of the n bits for providing CRC information.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

multiplexing a first stream of cells associated with at least a first service type, a second stream of cells associated with at least a second service type and a third stream of cells associated with retransmission data.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the one or more identified cells includes an idle cell; and

in case an idle cell has been determined, discarding retransmission of the idle cell.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more repetitive noise parameters, the one or more repetitive noise parameters determining time periods during which no user data is transmitted.

10. The method according to claim 9 further comprising:

based on the determining of one or more repetitive noise parameters, determining one or more cells which are expected to be disturbed by a noise impulse; and

immediately starting a retransmission for all determined cells.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a received cell is corrupt;

if at least one cell is determined to be corrupt, determining the identification of the last correctly received cell;

including the identification of the last correctly received cell into the request for retransmission.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the providing of an identification and the processing of the request for retransmission is provided hierarchically between a PMS-TC layer and a data link layer.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting idle cells from the first transceiver to the second transceiver, the idle cells being transparent to the TPS-TC layer of the first and second transceiver.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a service class associated with a cell or the group of cells; and

determining whether a retransmission request is to be provided for the cell based on the determined service class.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

distributing the plurality of cells to a plurality of subscriber lines based on the identification, thereby providing a bonding of the first and second subscriber line.

16. A transmitter comprising:

an input to receive a plurality of cells;

an identification entity to provide for each of the plurality of cells or for a group of the plurality of cells an identification;

a transmit entity to initiate transmission of the plurality of cells to a remote transceiver unit; and

a retransmission entity to receive a retransmission request including at least one identification from the remote transceiver unit, the retransmission entity being configured to transfer to the transmit entity one or more cells based on the received at least one identification.

17. The transmitter according to claim 16, wherein the receiver further comprises a bonding entity to bond a plurality of communication links.

18. The transmitter according to claim 16, wherein the bonding entity shares at least one functionality with the retransmission entity.

19. The transmitter according to claim 16, further comprising a multiplexer to multiplex a first stream of cells associated with at least a first service type, a second stream of cells associated with at least a second service type and a third stream of cells associated with retransmission data.

20. The transmitter according to claim 16, further comprising a CRC entity to provide CRC calculations over each whole cell or over each whole group of cells.

21. The transmitter according to claim 16, wherein the retransmission entity is implemented hierarchically between a PMS-TC layer and a data link layer.

22. The transmitter according to claim 16, further comprising a TPS-TC entity to provide processing of at least one TPS-TC functionality for the cells, the TPS-TC entity being configured to receive the plurality of cells from the retransmission entity.

23. A receiver comprising:

a retransmission entity to receive a plurality of cells from a remote transmitter and to provide an indication of at least one corrupt cell or an indication of at least one corrupt group of cells; and

a request generation entity to receive the indication and to generate a retransmission request based on the indication.

24. The receiver according to claim 23, further comprising:

a TPS-TC entity to provide processing for at least one TPS-TC functionality for the received cells, wherein the receiver is configured to transfer the plurality of cells from the TPS-TC entity to the retransmission entity.

25. The receiver according to claim 23, further comprising a CRC entity, the CRC entity providing an error detection, wherein the retransmission entity provides indication of a corrupt cell based on a result of the CRC entity.

26. The receiver according to claim 23, wherein the CRC entity is capable of providing error detection for a whole cell or a whole group of cells.

27. The receiver according to claim 23, wherein the receiver further comprises a bonding entity to bond a plurality of communication links.

28. The receiver according to claim 27 wherein the bonding and the retransmission entity share a same identification of cells or group of cells.

29. The receiver according to claim 27, wherein the bonding entity and the retransmission entity are implemented on a same protocol sublayer.

30. The receiver according to claim 27, wherein the bonding entity is implemented in a sublayer between a TPS-TC sublayer and the data link layer.

31. The receiver according to claim 23, wherein the request generation entity is configured to provide an indication of a last correctly received cell or an indication of a last correctly received group of cell in the retransmission request.

32. The receiver according to claim 23, wherein the request generation entity is configured to determine a service class associated with a corrupt received cell or a corrupt received group of cell and to determine whether a retransmission request should be generated based on the determined service class.

33. A DSL transmission system comprising:

a first transceiver unit, the first transceiver unit comprising

an input to receive a plurality of cells;

an identification entity to provide an identification for each of the plurality of cells or for a group of cells; and

a retransmission entity to receive a retransmission request including at least one identification from the remote transceiver unit, the retransmission entity being configured to transfer to the transmit entity one or more cells based on the received at least one identification;

a second transceiver unit, the second transceiver unit comprising

a second retransmission entity to receive the plurality of cells and to provide indication of at least one corrupt cell or at least one corrupt group of cells;

a request generation entity to receive the indication and to generate the retransmission request based on the indication.

34. A protocol stack implemented on a chip, the protocol stack comprising a retransmission functionality with a cell or a group of cells as basic retransmission data units, wherein the retransmission functionality is provided between a TPS-TC sublayer and a data link layer.