METHOD AND A DEVICE FOR ACKNOWLEDGING DATA RECEIVED BY A COMMUNICATION DEVICE IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20090161572A1
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nezou, Patrice, Lagrange, Pascal
• Granted Patent: US 8,094,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0029 Reduction of the amount of signalling, e.g. retention of useful signalling or differential signalling power control H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/003 Adaptive formatting arrangements particular to signalling, e.g. variable amount of bits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1614 using bitmaps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/203 Details of error rate determination, e.g. BER, FER or WER
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for acknowledging data received by a communication device, the data being received by data packets, with each packet comprising a plurality of data blocks. The communication device:

• • determines (E503), for a packet, the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly,
  • sends (E509, E510; E515) an acknowledgement for at least one data block in the packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between a first and a second threshold, and
  • sends (E504, E505, E511, E512, E515), for the data packet, a piece of information at packet level representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is lower than the first threshold or higher than the second threshold.

Claims

1. ) Method for acknowledging data received by a communication device in a communication network, the data being received by data packets, with each packet comprising a plurality of data blocks, the method carried out by the communication device comprising:

determining, for a packet, the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly,

sending an acknowledgement for at least one data block in the packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between a first and a second threshold, the first threshold being lower than the second threshold, and

sending, for the data packet, a piece of information at packet level representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is lower than the first threshold or higher than the second threshold.

2. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein an acknowledgement is sent for each data block in the data packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between the first and the second threshold.

3. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement sent for a data block is a positive acknowledgement if the data in the data block can be processed correctly.

4. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein the piece of information representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly takes two values:

a first value representing a large number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly and a second value representing a limited number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly.

5. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein the data packet is also transferred to another communication device.

6. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of data packets are received and transferred by the communication device and in that the method also comprises:

selecting a predetermined number of data packets whose number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between the first and the second threshold,

sending an acknowledgement for at least one data block in each selected packet.

7. ) Method according to claim 6, wherein the method also comprises:

sending, for at least one data block in each unselected packet whose number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between the first and the second threshold, another piece of information by packet representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly.

8. ) Method according to claim 7, wherein the other piece of information representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly takes another value representing an average number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly.

9. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein the data in a data block are determined as being able to be processed correctly by:

reading a previously received copy of the data block,

determining the number of symbols which have a different value in the data block and the copy which has been read,

and in that the data in a data block are determined as being able to be processed correctly if the number of symbols which have a different value in the data block and the copy which has been read is lower than or equal to the correction capacity of the communication device.

10. ) Method according to claim 1, wherein the communication device in a communication network receives in response to previously transferred data packets by the communication device, information or acknowledgements from other communication devices and the method carried out by the communication device comprising:

classifying of the other communication devices as a function of the information and/or the acknowledgements that the other communication devices have sent,

determining the communication devices relaying data packets transferred by a source communication device for a destination communication device from the classified other communication devices.

11. ) Device for acknowledging data received by a communication device in a communication network, the data being received by data packets, with each packet comprising a plurality of data blocks, wherein the acknowledgement device has:

means for determining, for a packet, the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly,

means for sending an acknowledgement for at least one data block in the packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between a first and a second threshold, the first threshold being lower than the second threshold, and

means for sending, for the data packet, a piece of information at packet level representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is lower than the first threshold or higher than the second threshold.

12. ) A computer-readable storage medium storing a program which, when loaded and executed by a computer or a processor in a device, allows the device to implement the method for acknowledging data received by a communication device in a communication network, the data being received by data packets, with each packet comprising a plurality of data blocks, the method carried out by the communication device comprising:

determining, for a packet, the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly,

sending an acknowledgement for at least one data block in the packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between a first and a second threshold, the first threshold being lower than the second threshold, and

sending, for the data packet, a piece of information at packet level representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is lower than the first threshold or higher than the second threshold.

13. ) Device for acknowledging data received by a communication device in a communication network, the data being received by data packets, with each packet comprising a plurality of data blocks, wherein the acknowledgement device is configured to:

determine, for a packet, the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly,

send an acknowledgement for at least one data block in the packet if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is between a first and a second threshold, the first threshold being lower than the second threshold, and

send, for the data packet, a piece of information at packet level representing the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly if the number of data blocks whose data can be processed correctly is lower than the first threshold or higher than the second threshold.