Selective retransmission of data

• US 7,142,542 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2001
• Issued: 11/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pazhyannur, Rajesh S., Rananand, Nol, Ali, Irfan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGO, NGUYEN HOANG
• Application Number:
  US10/003,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20030091068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,839 Days
• Field of Search: 370/428, 370/394, 370/473, 370/474, 370/342, 370/469, 714/748, 714/749
• US Class Current: 370/394
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1809 Selective-repeat protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1838 for semi-reliable protocols, e.g. for less sensitive applications such as streaming video buffer level management for video bitstream receiver H04N21/44004
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements

Abstract

During reception of a higher-layer packet, segmented into lower-layer frames, a receiver will appropriately determine if a lower-layer frame was correctly received. If a lower-layer frame is not correctly received, and the maximum number of NAKs have been sent, the lower-layer frame is categorized as aborted. Once a frame has been categorized as aborted, the receiver determines an RLP frame corresponding to the higher layer packet boundary, sets V(N) to a next missing link-layer frame after a higher-layer packet boundary and pushes frames up to V(N) to the higher layer.

Claims

1. A method in a receiver for effecting selective retransmission by a transmitter within a communication system wherein packets at a higher layer are segmented and transmitted via a link-layer protocol, the method comprising the steps of:

in the receiver,

determining in the receiver that a link-layer frame needs to be aborted;

determining a set of link-layer frames (V(B)) having higher-layer packet boundaries;

setting V(N) to a next missing link-layer frame after a higher-layer packet boundary if V(B) is not an empty set, otherwise setting V(N) to V(R), wherein V(N) is a frame number of a next link-layer frame needed for sequential deliver of frames and V(R) is a frame number of a next new link-layer frame expected; and

pushing all frames with sequence numbers up to V(N) up to the higher layer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining that the link-layer frame needs to be aborted comprises the step of determining that an Radio Link Protocol (RLP) frame needs to be aborted, wherein the RLP frame comprises a segment from a higher-layer Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) packet.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining that the link-layer frame needs to be aborted comprises the step of determining that a Radio-Link Protocol (RLP) frame needs to be aborted.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a set of link-layer frames having higher-layer packet boundaries comprises the step of determining a set of link-layer frames having Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) packet boundaries.

5. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver having a poorly received link-layer frame as an input, wherein the link-layer frame comprises a segment of a higher-layer data packet; and

logic circuitry determining that the poorly received link-layer frame should be aborted;

determining a set of link-layer frames (V(B)) having higher-layer packet boundaries;

setting V(N) to a next missing link-layer frame after a next higher-layer packet boundary if V(B) is not an empty set, otherwise setting V(N) to V(R), wherein V(N) is a frame number of a next link-layer frame needed for sequential deliver of frames and V(R) is a frame number of a next new link-layer frame expected; and

pushing all frames with sequence numbers up to V(N) up to the higher layer.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the higher-layer data packet comprises a PPP packet.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the poorly received link-layer packet comprises a poorly-received RLP packet.