RETRANSMISSION SCHEME FOR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

• US 20090313517A1
• Filed: 08/19/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Heise, Bernd, Schedelbeck, Gert, Thyagarajan, Umashankar, Schoppmeier, Dietmar
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0083 Formatting with frames or packets; Protocol or part of protocol for error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1874 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements

Abstract

One embodiment relates to a method of transmitting data from a transmitter to a receiver. In the method, a payload data stream is provided which comprises a plurality of payload data units. A container stream is formed which comprises a plurality of containers having respective container identifiers, where a container includes an integer number of the payload data units and where the container identifiers collectively establish a predetermined order for consecutive containers. A codeword stream is formed which comprises a plurality of codewords having respective redundancy information, where a codeword includes at least a portion of the container and where redundancy information of the codeword facilitates detection of erroneous data in the codeword. The codeword is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data from a transmitter to a receiver, comprising:

providing a payload data stream comprising a plurality of payload data units;

forming a container stream comprising a plurality of containers having respective container identifiers, where a container includes an integer number of payload data units and where the container identifiers collectively establish a predetermined order for consecutive containers;

forming a codeword stream comprising a plurality of codewords having respective redundancy information, where a codeword includes at least a portion of the container and where redundancy information of the codeword facilitates detection of erroneous data in the codeword; and

transmitting the codeword from the transmitter to the receiver.

2. The method of claim 1, where the redundancy information in the codeword can be used to identify a particular payload data unit or a particular container having erroneous data within the codeword.

3. The method of claim 1, where the payload data units include respective payload sequence identifiers that collectively establish a predetermined order for consecutive payload data units.

4. The method of claim 1, where containers within the container stream are grouped so that respective containers have the same number of payload data units.

5. The method of claim 1, where the payload data units in the payload data stream have the same fixed bit length as one another.

6. The method of claim 5, where respective payload data units comprise a single Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cell or a single 65-octect codeword.

7. The method of claim 1, where respective payload data units are classified as non-eligible-for-retransmission or eligible-for-retransmission.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a retransmission request from the receiver, the retransmission request including a container identifier bit field that specifies a container that was received having uncorrectable data; and

retransmitting the uncorrectable data from the transmitter to the receiver based on the retransmission request.

9. The method of claim 8, where the uncorrectable data is retransmitted from the transmitter to the receiver in a container that is a bit-for-bit replica of the specified container as originally transmitted.

10. The method of claim 8, where the uncorrectable data is retransmitted from the transmitter to the receiver in a container that is different from the specified container as originally transmitted.

11. A transceiver, comprising:

a first network interface layer adapted to receive a payload data stream comprising a plurality of payload data units;

a second network interface layer adapted to group payload data units from the payload data stream into containers, thereby forming a container stream;

a transmitter adapted to transmit data from the container stream over a communication medium; and

a receiver adapted to receive one of several types of retransmission requests from over the communication medium;

where one type of retransmission request specifies data to be retransmitted with regards to the first network interface layer and an other type of retransmission request specifies data to be retransmitted with regards to the second network interface layer; and

a retransmission controller adapted to facilitate retransmission of data over the communication medium based on retransmission requests and independent of the retransmission request type.

12. The transceiver of claim 11, where the first network layer and second network layer reside in a physical layer of an OSI model.

13. The transceiver of claim 11, where the first network layer is a TPS/TC layer and where the second network layer is a PMS/TC layer.

14. The transceiver of claim 11, where the container controller is adapted to append container headers to respective containers, where a container header for a container comprises:

a retransmission bit field that identifies whether the container is being initially transmitted or retransmitted; and

a container identifier bit field, where container identifiers of the respective containers collectively establish a predetermined order for consecutive containers.

15. The transceiver of claim 11, further comprising:

a retransmission buffer adapted to store payload data units with respective container identifiers after the payload data units have been transmitted.

16. A method of receiving data at a receiver, comprising:

receiving a codeword that includes redundancy information;

using the redundancy information to determine whether the codeword includes correctable data or uncorrectable data;

if the codeword includes correctable data, then locating at least a portion of a container within the codeword, where the container is identified by a container identifier that identifies how the container sequentially relates to other containers in a container stream; and

locating an integer number of payload data units within the container.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

selectively generating a retransmission request based on whether the container identifier has a predetermined relationship with a previously received container identifier.

18. The method of claim 17, where the predetermined relationship is met if the container identifier follows consecutively from the previously received container identifier in accordance with a predetermined pattern.

19. The method of claim 16, where payload data units comprise respective payload sequence identifiers (PLSIDs).

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

selectively generating a retransmission request based on whether a payload data unit within the integer number of payload data units has a predetermined relationship with a previously received payload data unit.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

assembling a payload stream by arranging the integer number of payload data units with other received payload data units so consecutive payload data units in the payload stream have sequential PLSIDs.

22. A receiver, comprising:

a data reception controller adapted to analyze whether a received codeword is correctly received;

a container controller adapted to generate a container stream from a plurality of correctly received codewords, where the container stream comprises a number of containers having respective container identifiers;

analysis circuitry adapted to analyze the container identifiers in the container stream to determine whether a container identifier is non-consecutive with a previously received container identifier.

23. The receiver of claim 22 further comprising:

a retransmission controller adapted to generate a retransmission request based on whether the container identifier is non-consecutive with the previously received container identifier.

24. The receiver of claim 22, where the redundancy information in the codeword can be used to identify a particular payload data unit or a particular container having erroneous data within the codeword for generation of retransmission requests.

25. The receiver of claim 22, where a container comprises an integer number of payload data units that are part of a payload stream.

26. The receiver of claim 25, where the payload data units are respectively associated with payload sequence identifiers that collectively establish a predetermined order for payload data units in the payload stream.

27. The receiver of claim 26, where the container controller is further adapted to re-order correctly received payload data units so that the received payload data units are passed to a network layer according to the predetermined order.