THROUGHPUT IN A LAN BY MANAGING TCP ACKS

• US 20110044338A1
• Filed: 12/20/2006
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Stahl, Thomas Anthony, Tian, Qingjiang
• Application Number:
  US12/312,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20110044338A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2838 Distribution of signals within a home automation network, e.g. involving splitting/multiplexing signals to/from different paths adaptations of television systems for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution H04N7/106; hybrid transport H04L12/6418; home network arrangements specially adapted for distribution of digital video signals H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for managing acknowledgements, including identifying data packets and acknowledgements with a connection, determining which of the acknowledgements can be eliminated, replacing the acknowledgements that can be eliminated with a single acknowledgement and transmitting the single acknowledgement. An alternative method and apparatus are described for managing acknowledgements, including receiving a data segment, keeping track of connections, determining if there are enough data segments for a pre-determined number of channel time allocations and generating the acknowledgments for a selected connection if there are enough data segments for the pre-determined number of channel time allocations.

Claims

1. A method for managing acknowledgements, said method comprising:

identifying data packets and acknowledgements with a connection;

determining which of said acknowledgements can be eliminated;

replacing said acknowledgements that can be eliminated with a single acknowledgement; and

transmitting said single acknowledgement.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said identifying act further comprises examining headers in a transmit queue.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said examining act further comprises examining a flag in said headers.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein said determining act further comprises determining which acknowledgements are from a common connection.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising reading sequence numbers in said headers.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said single acknowledgement has a highest sequence number of said data packets being acknowledged.

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

determining if there is a payload packet to be transmitted; and

transmitting said single acknowledgement in said payload packet.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said connection is a TCP connection.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said acknowledgements are TCP acknowledgements and said single acknowledgement is a TCP acknowledgement.

10. A method for managing acknowledgements, said method comprising:

receiving a data segment;

keeping track of connections;

determining if there are enough data segments for a pre-determined number of channel time allocations; and

generating said acknowledgments for a selected connection if there are enough data segments for said pre-determined number of channel time allocations.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising withholding acknowledgements if frames are arriving too frequently.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

intercepting a segment acknowledgement forwarded by a remote device;

determining if said segment has already been acknowledged;

discarding said segment acknowledgement if said segment has already been acknowledged; and

forwarding said segment acknowledgement if said segment has not already been acknowledged.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising receiving a summary report.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein said connections are TCP connections.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein said acknowledgements are TCP acknowledgements.

16. The method according to claim 10, further comprising aggregating said acknowledgements in to a single acknowledgement.

29. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising receiving a summary report.

30. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said connections are TCP connections.

17. An apparatus for managing acknowledgements, comprising:

means for identifying data packets and acknowledgements with a connection;

means for determining which of said acknowledgements can be eliminated;

means for replacing said acknowledgements that can be eliminated with a single acknowledgement; and

means for transmitting said single acknowledgement.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said means for identifying further comprises means for examining headers in a transmit queue.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said means for examining further comprises means for examining a flag in said headers.

20. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said means for determining further comprises means for determining which acknowledgements are from a common connection.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising means for reading sequence numbers in said headers.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said single acknowledgement has a highest sequence number of said data packets being acknowledged.

23. The apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising:

means for determining if there is a payload packet to be transmitted; and

means for transmitting said single acknowledgement in said payload packet.

24. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said connection is a TCP connection.

25. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said acknowledgements are TCP acknowledgements and said single acknowledgement is a TCP acknowledgement.

26. An apparatus for managing acknowledgements, comprising:

means for receiving a data segment;

means for keeping track of connections;

means for determining if there are enough data segments for a pre-determined number of channel time allocations; and

means for generating said acknowledgments for a selected connection if there are enough data segments for said pre-determined number of channel time allocations.

27. The apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising means for withholding acknowledgements if frames are arriving too frequently.

28. The apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising:

means for intercepting a segment acknowledgement forwarded by a remote device;

means for determining if said segment has already been acknowledged;

means for discarding said segment acknowledgement if said segment has already been acknowledged; and

means for forwarding said segment acknowledgement if said segment has not already been acknowledged.

31. The apparatus according to claim 26, wherein said acknowledgements are TCP acknowledgements.

32. The apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising means for aggregating said acknowledgements into a single acknowledgement.