Base station apparatus, mobile terminal apparatus and wireless access system using the apparatuses

• US 7,209,480 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2001
• Issued: 04/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Shinkichi
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, DUC CHI
• Application Number:
  US09/986,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20020058480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/389, 370/328, 370/469, 370/352, 370/401, 709/320, 709/230
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/27 Evaluation or update of window size, e.g. using information derived from acknowledged [ACK] packets
• 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 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A base station serves as a relay node between a mobile terminal and an application server on a backbone network. The base receives a radio packet from the mobile terminal through a wireless I/F section, and transfers the radio packet to a IP processing section, a TCP input section and a protocol relay section successively in this order. At this point, with respect to the packet, the IP header is processed and then removed in the IP processing section, the TCP header is processed and then removed in a TCP processing section, and the data is transferred to a protocol relay section along with the TCP segment information described in both headers. The protocol relay section has a conversion table, and performs proxy processing based on the table.

Claims

1. A base station apparatus having a wireless interface and a cable interface and relaying communications between a mobile terminal apparatus and the internet, the base station apparatus comprising:

a protocol relay section that performs proxy processing;

a protocol processing section that performs normal protocol processing and relay processing without involving proxy processing;

a first output destination controller that detects an instruction from the mobile terminal apparatus from the relay packet, selects one of the protocol relay section and the protocol processing section in accordance with the detected instruction, and instructs packet processing to the mobile terminal apparatus.

2. The base station apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instruction from the mobile terminal apparatus is described in an upper transfer field in a header of the relay packet.

3. The base station apparatus of claim 2, wherein the header of the relay packet is associated with a layer 2.

4. The base station apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the protocol relay section performs proxy processing on a transport layer, and

wherein the protocol processing section performs protocol processing on a network layer.

5. The base station apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the protocol relay section performs proxy processing on at least one of a transport layer and a network layer, and

wherein the protocol processing section performs protocol processing on a data link layer.

6. The base station apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a L2 relay section that performs relay processing on a data link layer; and

a second output destination controller that selects one of transfer to the L2 relay section and transfer to an upper layer corresponding to a type of the relay packet,

wherein when the second output destination controller selects transfer to the upper layer, the first output destination controller selects one of the protocol relay section and the protocol processing section in accordance with the detected instruction.

7. A mobile terminal apparatus comprising:

a header setting section that adds to a header an instruction for relaying the relay packet to the base station apparatus of claim 1, on a layer; and

a wireless communication section that transmits the relay packet including the header.

8. The mobile terminal apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instruction for the layer for packet relay processing instructs a relay on a data link layer.

9.The mobile terminal apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instruction for the layer for packet relay processing instructs a relay on a transport layer.

9. The mobile terminal apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instruction for the layer for the packet relay processing is described in an upper transfer field in the header.

10. A wireless access system comprising a mobile terminal apparatus and a base station apparatus that relays communications between the mobile terminal apparatus and the internet,

the mobile terminal apparatus comprising:

a header setting section that adds to a header an instruction for relaying a relay packet on a layer; and

a wireless communication section that transmits a relay packet including the header, the base station apparatus comprising;

a protocol relay section that performs proxy processing;

a protocol processing section that performs normal protocol processing and relay processing without involving proxy processing; and

an output destination controller that selects one of the protocol relay section and the protocol processing section based on the instruction described in the header of the relay packet, and instructs packet processing to the mobile terminal apparatus.