Simultaneous over the air data download to multiple radios
First Claim
1. A communication manager for sending data packets to a plurality of mobile radios, comprising a transceiver to 1) send at least one command to establish a broadcast session with the mobile radios, 2) broadcast some of said data packets simultaneously to the mobile radios without receiving acknowledgments individually from the mobile radios, 3) transmit others of said data packets individually to the mobile radios, 4) receive an acknowledgment to at least one of the individually transmitted data packets from said mobile radios of receipt of both the broadcasted and individually transmitted data packets, and 5) broadcast at least one command to disconnect the broadcast session with the mobile radios.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a multi-point mobile radio broadcast network, the multiple mobile radios can have personality information reprogrammed via a broadcast method, rather than on a one-to-one basis. A communications manager, which controls the communications between the various mobile radios can change the personality information contained in each radio by broadcasting that information to the radios as a group. After receiving the new personality information, a processor within the mobile radios can remove the unique identification codes associated with that particular radio from the old personality information, imported into the new personality information communicated to it by the communication manager, and store the new personality information with the newly incorporated unique identification codes into a local memory. The protocol for broadcasting the personality information to the mobile radios is important to ensure that the mobile radios receive the new personality information. It is also important that the communication manager have assurances that the mobile radios properly receive the new personality information, without requiring the mobile radios to communicate multiple acknowledgments one-by-one to the communication manager. Accordingly, broadcast sessions are initiated by a repetitious broadcast control signal, then group data is broadcast without acknowledgments to the mobile radios. On the last data broadcast, the communication manager requests an acknowledgment, which is returned one-by-one from each mobile radio. Finally, a disconnect broadcast session control signal is then repetitiously broadcast to the radios.
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Citations
40 Claims
- 1. A communication manager for sending data packets to a plurality of mobile radios, comprising a transceiver to 1) send at least one command to establish a broadcast session with the mobile radios, 2) broadcast some of said data packets simultaneously to the mobile radios without receiving acknowledgments individually from the mobile radios, 3) transmit others of said data packets individually to the mobile radios, 4) receive an acknowledgment to at least one of the individually transmitted data packets from said mobile radios of receipt of both the broadcasted and individually transmitted data packets, and 5) broadcast at least one command to disconnect the broadcast session with the mobile radios.
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14. A mobile radio used in a multi-point radio broadcast system of mobile radios and a central communications station, comprising:
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a memory device containing alterable radio personality information including an identification code unique to said mobile radio among all of said mobile radios in the multi-point radio broadcast system; a transceiver in broadcast communication with the central communications station using a packet data channel with a packet data transport protocol layer, said packet data transport protocol layer including; an initial broadcast transfer unit transmitted by the central communications station to the mobile radios to initiate a broadcast communication session simultaneously with the mobile radios, said initial broadcast transfer unit including a command indicating the initiation of the broadcast communication session and a first command flag indicating that the mobile radios are not to acknowledge receipt of the initial broadcast transfer unit; a data transfer unit used by the central communications station to send new radio personality information via a sequence of data simultaneously to the mobile radios, said data transfer unit including a sequence number identifying a current data packet in the sequence of data packets to be received by the mobile radios, said sequence of data including a second command flag indicating that the mobile radios are not to acknowledge receipt of the data transfer unit; an acknowledge request data transfer unit used by the central communications station to continue a sequential transfer of data packets via said data transfer unit, including a poll flag indicating that the mobile radios are to acknowledge receipt to the central communications station of the current data packet in the sequence of data packets; an acknowledge transfer unit used by the mobile radios to acknowledge receipt of a current data packet from the central communications station in response to the poll flag, including a request number identifying a data packet next expected in the sequence of data packets; and a disconnect broadcast unit used by the central communications station to end a broadcast communication with the mobile radios; and a processor to combine the new radio personality information with the unique identification code and write the new radio personality information with the unique identification code into the memory. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A method of broadcasting radio personality information to multiple mobile radios, each of said multiple mobile radios having alterable radio personality information stored together with a unique radio identification code, comprising the steps of:
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1) broadcasting a broadcast initiation command simultaneously to the multiple mobile radios without receiving an acknowledgment of receipt of the broadcast initiation command from the multiple mobile radios; 2) repeating step 1 a plurality of times; 3) broadcasting a current data packet associated with new radio personality information simultaneously to the multiple mobile radios without receiving an acknowledgment of receipt of the current data packet from the multiple mobile radios; 4) contemporaneously with step number 3, broadcasting a sequence number Y corresponding to the current data packet; 5) repeating steps
3) and
4) for a next data packet using a next sequence number equal to a previous sequence number incremented by a predetermined value;6) repeating step
5) until all data packets are broadcast, except for a last data packet;7) broadcasting the last data packet associated with the new radio personality information simultaneously to the multiple mobile radios; 8) contemporaneously with step
7), broadcasting a request for acknowledgment to said multiple mobile radios; and9) receiving an acknowledgment from each of said multiple mobile radios including a request number equal to Y+n, where "n" is the sum of the increments actually received by each particular mobile radio in steps
5) through
8);10) checking the request number received in step
9) for each mobile radio with the value of Y plus the sum of the increments broadcast in steps
5) though
8); and11) rebroadcasting the data packets if in the check in step
10) one or more of said mobile radios did not return a request number equal to said Y plus the sum of the increments broadcast. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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- 19. A communication manager for sending data packets to a plurality of mobile radios, comprising a transceiver to 1) send at least one command to establish a broadcast session with the mobile radios, 2) broadcast a continuous stream of said data packets simultaneously to the mobile radios without interrupting the stream for the purpose of receiving acknowledgments individually from the mobile radios, wherein said data packets broadcasted simultaneously to the mobile radios include all data packets in a sequence of data packets except at least one data packet last in the sequence of data packets 3) at the conclusion of said continuous stream broadcast, transmit the at least one data packet together with a request for acknowledgment individually to each of said plurality of mobile radios, and 4) receive an acknowledgment from said mobile radios that successfully received and understood the stream of data packets and 5) receive a re-transmission request from said mobile radios that did not successfully receive or understand the stream of data packets, and to re-transmit said stream of data packets individually to said mobile radios that return said re-transmission request.
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29. A method of sending data packets to a plurality of mobile radios, comprising:
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sending at least one command to establish a broadcast session with the mobile radios; broadcasting some of said data packets simultaneously to the mobile radios without receiving acknowledgments individually from the mobile radios; transmitting others of said data packets individually to the mobile radios; receiving an acknowledgment to the individually transmitted data packets from said mobile radios of receipt of both said broadcasted and said individually transmitted data packets; and broadcasting at least one command to disconnect the broadcast session with the mobile radios. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A communication manager for sending data packets to a plurality of mobile radios, comprising a transceiver to:
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send at least one command to establish a broadcast session with the mobile radios; broadcast some of said data packets simultaneously to the mobile radios without receiving acknowledgments individually from the mobile radios; transmit others of said data packets individually to the mobile radios; and receive an acknowledgment to at least one of the individually transmitted data packets from said mobile radios of receipt of both the broadcasted and individually transmitted data packets.
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Specification