SUPPORTING PACKET QUERY-RESPONSE TRANSACTIONS AT LOWER LAYER

• US 20160344619A1
• Filed: 05/20/2015
• Published: 11/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: YU, Yu-Ting, PARK, Vincent Douglas, WU, Zhibin
• Granted Patent: US 10,491,512 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02

Abstract

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer program product, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a first node. The first node receives a packet from a second node. The first node determines that the received packet is a query packet, the query packet including information indicating at least a transaction identifier. The first node determines a transaction type based on the information included in the query packet. The first node determines whether to transmit a response packet based on at least one of the transaction type or a transaction identifier at at least one of a PHY layer, a MAC layer, or a link layer. The first node transmits a response packet to the second node in response to determining to transmit the response.

Claims

1. A method of communication at a first node, comprising:

receiving a packet from a second node;

determining that the received packet is a query packet, the query packet including information indicating at least a transaction identifier;

determining a transaction type based on the information included in the query packet;

determining whether to transmit a response packet based on at least one of the transaction type or a transaction identifier; and

transmitting a response packet to the second node in response to determining to transmit the response.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising determining whether to suppress a transmission of a response packet in response to the query packet based on at least the transaction type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination whether to transmit the response packet is performed at at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet includes packet type information indicating whether the packet is a query or a response, and the received packet is determined to be a query packet based on the packet type information in the received packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction type indicates one of:

the query packet requests a response from one node;

the query packet requests a response from any nodes of a set of nodes;

the query packet requests a response from any M nodes of N nodes, where N is greater than M;

or

the query packet requests a response from each node of a set of nodes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the query packet further includes an address, and the first node determines to transmit the response packet when the transaction type indicates the query packet requests a response from one node and the address is associated with the first node.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the query packet further includes a transaction identifier and the transaction type indicates that the query packet requests a response from any nodes of a set of nodes, and

wherein the method further comprises

determining whether a response packet is transmitted by another node in response to the query packet from the second node based on whether a transaction identifier in the response packet matches with the transaction identifier in the query packet,

wherein the first node determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet in response to determining that a response packet is transmitted by said another node in response to the query packet, and

wherein the first node determines to transmit the response packet in response to determining that a response packet is not transmitted by said another node in response to the query packet.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet before communicating the received query packet to an upper layer.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet after communicating the received query packet to an upper layer and after receiving the response packet for transmission from the upper layer.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the query packet further includes a transaction identifier and the transaction type indicates that the query packet requests a response from any M nodes of N nodes, and

wherein the method further comprises

determining whether M response packets are transmitted by M nodes of the N nodes in response to the query packet from the second node based on whether a transaction identifier in each of the response packets matches with the transaction identifier in the query packet, wherein the M response packets are distinguished from each other,

wherein the first node determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet in response to determining that M response packets are transmitted by said M nodes in response to the query packet, and

wherein the first node determines to transmit the response packet in response to determining that response packets are transmitted by less than M nodes of the N nodes in response to the query packet.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet before communicating the received query packet to an upper layer.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet after communicating the received query packet to an upper layer and after receiving the response packet for transmission from the upper layer.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the query packet further includes an address, and the first node determines to transmit the response packet when the transaction type indicates the query packet requests a response from each node of a set of nodes, where the address indicates the set of nodes, and the first node is in the set of nodes.

14. A method of communication at a first node, comprising:

receiving, from an upper layer and at at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer, a transaction type and data associated with the transaction type;

obtaining a transaction identifier for the data;

preparing, at the one of the PHY layer, the MAC layer, or the link layer, a query packet to include the transaction type, the data, a packet type, and the transaction identifier, wherein the packet type indicates that the query packet is a query, wherein the transaction type indicates one of (a) the query packet requests a response from one node, (b) the query packet requests a response from any nodes of a set of nodes, (c) the query packet requests a response from any M nodes of N nodes where N is greater than M, or (d) the query packet requests a response from each node of a set of nodes; and

transmitting the query packet.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the query packet from the upper layer includes the transaction type and the packet type, and wherein the transaction identifier is obtained at the PHY layer, the MAC layer, or the link layer.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving at least one response packet in response to the query packet from at least one second node, each of the at least one response packet including the transaction identifier.

17. A method of communication at a first node, comprising:

receiving a query packet from a second node, wherein the query packet includes;

an indication of a first transaction with which the query packet is associated,

an indication that M response packets associated with the first transaction is requested by the second node, M being an integer greater than 0,

an indication of a time period allocated for transmitting the M response packets to the second node on a channel, and

an indication of at least one of a channel assignment mechanism or a contention mechanism to be used to allocate at least M time slots;

obtaining a first time slot from the at least M time slots allocated in the indicated time period for accessing a channel in accordance with the indicated at least one of contention mechanism or channel assignment mechanism; and

transmitting, at the first time slot, a first response packet of the M response packets associated with the first transaction to the second node on the channel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each of the M response packets include a respective distinguisher ID that distinguishes from the distinguisher IDs of the rest of the M response packets.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the channel assignment mechanism is a spreading mechanism that spreads allocation of the at least M time slots, wherein the first time slot is obtained in accordance with the spreading mechanism.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first time slot is obtained in accordance with the contention mechanism through which the first node contends for a time slot of the at least M time slots with other nodes, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting transmission of a second response packet of the M response packets associated with the first transaction to the second node from another node; and

determining a time slot of the at least M time slots subsequent to the transmission of the second response packet in order to obtain the first time slot.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the first time slot is obtained at a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining that the channel is available in the first time slot.

23. An apparatus for communication, the apparatus being a first node, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

receive a packet from a second node;

determine that the received packet is a query packet, the query packet including information indicating at least a transaction identifier;

determine a transaction type based on the information included in the query packet;

determine whether to transmit a response packet based on at least one of the transaction type or transaction identifier at at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer; and

transmit a response packet to the second node in response to determining to transmit the response.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the transaction type indicates one of:

the query packet requests a response from one node;

the query packet requests a response from any nodes of a set of nodes;

the query packet requests a response from any M nodes of N nodes, where N is greater than M;

or

the query packet requests a response from each node of a set of nodes.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the query packet further includes an address, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine to transmit the response packet when the transaction type indicates the query packet requests a response from one node and the address is associated with the first node.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the query packet further includes a transaction identifier and the transaction type indicates that the query packet requests a response from any nodes of a set of nodes, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to

determine whether a response packet is transmitted by another node in response to the query packet from the second node based on whether a transaction identifier in the response packet matches with the transaction identifier in the query packet,

determine to suppress the transmission of the response packet in response to determining that a response packet is transmitted by said another node in response to the query packet, and

determine to transmit the response packet in response to determining that a response packet is not transmitted by said another node in response to the query packet.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the query packet further includes a transaction identifier and the transaction type indicates that the query packet requests a response from any M nodes of N nodes, and

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to

determine whether M response packets are transmitted by M nodes of the N nodes in response to the query packet from the second node based on whether a transaction identifier in each of the response packets matches with the transaction identifier in the query packet, wherein the M response packets are distinguished from each other,

determine to suppress the transmission of the response packet in response to determining that M response packets are transmitted by said M nodes in response to the query packet, and

determine to transmit the response packet in response to determining that response packets are transmitted by less than M nodes of the N nodes in response to the query packet.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet before communicating the received query packet to an upper layer.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein when determining to suppress the transmission of the response packet, at least one of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a link layer determines to suppress the transmission of the response packet after communicating the received query packet to an upper layer and after receiving the response packet for transmission from the upper layer.

30. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the query packet further includes an address, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine to transmit the response packet when the transaction type indicates the query packet requests a response from each node of a set of nodes, where the address indicates the set of nodes, and the first node is in the set of nodes.