PACKING SOURCE DATA PACKETS INTO TRANSPORTING PACKETS WITH FRAGMENTATION

• US 20150358856A1
• Filed: 08/20/2015
• Published: 12/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Inventors: Stanwood, Kenneth L., Wang, Stanley, Johnson, Robert M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,374,733 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0042 Encoding specially adapted to other signal generation operation, e.g. in order to reduce transmit distortions, jitter, or to improve signal shape H04L1/0067 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0205 at the air interface dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

A communication system and method are disclosed for transmitting packets of information in at least one first format over a communications link that utilizes packets of information in a second format. In certain embodiments, the packets of information in a first format are converted to packets of information in the second format prior to transmission via the communications link by packing and fragmenting the information in the first format in a coordinated manner. Embodiments may also utilize packing subheaders and fragmentation control bits in the packing and fragmentation processes.

Claims

20. A base station in a wireless communication system, comprising:

one or more processors;

a computer readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to

establish a service connection from the base station to a mobile subscriber unit,

map variable length service data units (SDUs) associated with the service connection into variable length protocol data units (PDUs) associated with the service connection, based at least in part on data carrying capacity provided for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in a physical downlink frame, the data carrying capacity based on at least one of a priority associated with the service connection, a modulation scheme and an error correction scheme, and

map the PDUs for the mobile subscriber unit into the physical downlink frame; and

a transmitter operable to transmit the physical downlink frame to the subscriber unit using the modulation scheme and the error correction scheme.

1. A base station that communicates over a wireless communication link with mobile subscriber units, comprising:

one or more processors operable to,

establish a service connection from the base station to a mobile subscriber unit,

map variable length service data units (SDUs) associated with the service connection into variable length protocol data units (PDUs) associated with the service connection, the SDUs being mapped into the PDUs based at least in part on data carrying capacity provided by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in a physical downlink frame, the data carrying capacity based on at least one of a priority associated with the service connection, a modulation scheme and an error correction scheme, and

map the PDUs for the mobile subscriber unit into the physical downlink frame; and

a transmitter operable to transmit the physical downlink frame over the wireless communication link using the modulation scheme and the error correction scheme.

2. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the length of the PDUs associated with the service connection is based on the data carrying capacity provided by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in the physical downlink frame.

3. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are operable to establish a second service connection to the mobile subscriber unit.

4. A base station as claimed in claim 3, wherein the length of the PDUs associated with the second service connection is based on data carrying capacity provided by the base station for the second service connection for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in the physical downlink frame.

5. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the modulation scheme, error correction scheme and power used by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit are changed based in part on signal quality measurements for signals transmitted between the base station and the mobile subscriber unit.

6. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to provide to the mobile station uplink data carrying capacity in a physical uplink frame in response to a request message received from the mobile subscriber unit.

7. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors map the variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs associated with the service connection using a packing and fragmenting operation.

8. A base station as claimed in claim 7, wherein the one or more processors coordinate packing variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs with fragmenting of SDUs for maximizing the amount of data mapped to a payload field of the PDU.

9. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors provide a connection identifier for the variable length SDUs packed into the PDU.

10. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for mapping variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs, the one or more processors are operable to,

pack SDUs into a payload field of a PDU,

insert a packing information in the PDU for the SDUs packed in the PDU, and

provide an indication that the PDU contains variable length SDUs.

11. A base station as claimed in claim 10, wherein the packing information includes information about the length of the SDUs packed into the PDU.

12. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for mapping variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs, the one or more processors are operable to,

pack one or more SDUs into a payload field of a PDU, until a next SDU cannot fit into a remaining field of the payload field of the PDU;

fragment the next SDU into a first and a second fragment, the first fragment having the length of the remaining field of the payload field of the PDU;

map the first fragment to the remaining field; and

provide a packing information in the PDU to indicate the fragmentation state of the payload field of the PDU and to identify the first fragment as being a first fragment.

13. A base station as claimed in claim 12, wherein any SDU fragment includes a fragmentation control field identifying the SDU fragment.

14. A base station as claimed in claim 12, wherein, for mapping variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs, the one or more processors are further operable to,

map the second fragment to the beginning of the subsequent PDU on condition that the length of the second fragment fits into the length of the payload field of a subsequent PDU;

and

insert a second packing information in the subsequent PDU to indicate the fragmentation state of the payload of the subsequent PDU and to identify the second fragment as being a last fragment.

15. A base station as claimed in claim 14, wherein, for mapping variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs, the one or more processors are further operable to,

further fragment the second fragment on condition that the length of the second fragment exceeds the length of the payload field of the subsequent PDU, to obtain a third fragment having the length of the payload field of the subsequent PDU;

map the third fragment to the subsequent PDU; and

insert a further packing information in the subsequent PDU to indicate the fragmentation state of the payload and to identify the third fragment.

16. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data carrying capacity provided by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in the physical downlink frame includes a number of physical layer information elements (PIs) comprised of a pre-defined number of bits.

17. A base station as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmitter uses the modulation scheme and the error correction scheme over the physical layer information elements provided by the case station to the mobile subscriber unit.

18. A base station as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmitter is further operable to provide a control message to the mobile subscriber unit with information on the data carrying capacity provided by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in the physical downlink frame.

19. A base station as claimed in claim 18, wherein the control message further includes information about the modulation scheme and the error correction scheme used by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit, for enabling the mobile subscriber unit to decode the data addressed to it.

21. A base station as claimed in claim 20, wherein the

instructions, when executed by the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to

measure a path quality parameter characterizing the uplink traffic received along the communication an uplink from the mobile subscriber unit;

and

instruct the mobile subscriber unit to adjust one or more communication parameters based to the path quality parameter.

22. A base station as claimed in claim 21, wherein the path quality parameter includes a measure of errors detected in the received data.

23. A base station as claimed in claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to

collect setup, maintenance and performance information for each user connection;

and

adjust the one or more communication parameters according to the information collected by the communication establishment and maintenance module.

24. A base station as claimed in claim 20, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to establish a second service connection to the mobile subscriber unit.

25. A base station as claimed in claim 24, wherein the length of the PDUs associated with the second service connection is based on data carrying capacity provided by the base station for the second connection for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in the physical downlink frame.

26. A base station as claimed in claim 20, wherein one or more of the modulation scheme, error correction scheme and power used by the base station for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit are changed based in part on signal quality measurements for signals transmitted between the base station and the mobile subscriber unit.

27. A base station as claimed in claim 27, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to provide to the mobile station uplink data carrying capacity in a physical uplink frame based on per service connection requests received from the mobile subscriber unit.

27-1. A base station as claimed in claim 20, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to map the variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs associated with the service connection using a packing and fragmenting operation.

29. A method for operating a base station in a wireless communication system, comprising:

establishing a service connection from the base station to a mobile subscriber unit;

mapping variable length service data units (SDUs) associated with the service connection into variable length protocol data units (PDUs) associated with the service connection, based at least in part on data carrying capacity provided for transmission to the mobile subscriber unit in a physical downlink frame, the data carrying capacity based on at least one of a priority associated with the service connection, a modulation scheme and an error correction scheme;

mapping the PDUs for the mobile subscriber unit into the physical downlink frame; and

transmitting the physical downlink frame to the subscriber unit using the modulation scheme and the error correction scheme.

30. A method as claimed in claim 29, wherein mapping variable length SDUs into variable length PDUs, comprises:

packing one or more SDUs into a payload field of a PDU, until a next SDU cannot fit into a remaining field of the payload field of the PDU;

fragmenting the next SDU into a first and a second fragment, the first fragment having the length of the remaining field of the payload field of the PDU;

mapping the first fragment to the remaining field; and

providing a packing information in the PDU to indicate the fragmentation state of the payload field of the PDU and to identify the first fragment as being a first fragment.