ARQ protocol support for variable size transmission data unit sizes using a hierarchically structured sequence number approach

• US 6,317,430 B1
• Filed: 02/19/1998
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Nanda, Sanjiv, Laha, Subhasis, Knisely, Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Marcelo, Melvin
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, CHI HO A
• Application Number:
  US09/026,361
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 370/394, 370/465, 370/470, 370/472, 370/476, 370/477, 714/748, 714/749, 714/750, 714/779, 714/775
• US Class Current: 370/394
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0007 by modifying the frame length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1614 using bitmaps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1809 Selective-repeat protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1874 Buffer management
• 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

Abstract

The present invention permits the transmission of variable size PDUs using a Hierarchical Sequence Numbering Space approach that supports ARQ protocols in a variable transmission rate environment. Some of the key attributes of this scheme are: (1) Support for arbitrarily variable PDU sizes; (2) Variable length sequence numbers in protocol headers; (3) Variable depth sequence numbers in protocol headers; (4) Dynamic sequence number context to minimize the size of sequence numbers transmitted in PDUs; (5) Protocol control schemes to coordinate and communicate sequence number space information between peer protocol entities; and (6) Data structures and approaches for the efficient implementation of Hierarchical Sequence Number Space schemes.

Claims

1. A method for providing shortened sequence numbering to transmission data units, comprising the steps of:

determining a size of a transmission data unit belonging to a plurality of transmission data units;

determining a rate at which the plurality of transmission data units will be transmitted; and

assigning a portion of a sequence number space A to the plurality of transmission data units based on the size and the rate where A=A_r+c-1, A_r+c-2, . . . A₁, A₀, where r+c is the total number of bits describing the sequence number space and where the portion of the sequence number space has width+1 adjacent bits of the bits describing the sequence number space with the most significant bit being bit A_r+c-1-depth, the width decreasing with decreasing size and the depth increasing with lower rates.