Apparatus for transmitting WPAN MAC frames and method thereof

• US 7,505,483 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2005
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Ji Eun, Choi, Sangsung, Jeon, Yong Ae
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Chirag G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thompson, Jr.; Otis L
• Application Number:
  US11/071,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20060092844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,474 Days
• Field of Search: 370/466, 370/469
• US Class Current: 370/469
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An apparatus for transmitting WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) MAC (Medium Access Control) frames includes a transport frame management unit for creating MAC transport frames if data is generated from an upper protocol and application layer unit, classifying the created MAC transport frames by kinds, and managing the classified MAC transport frames by queues, a transport memory control unit for transmitting the transport frames at a high speed, and a transport frame transmission unit for responsible for the transmission of the transport frames by judging the transmission time of the frames.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) MAC (Medium Access Control) frames, comprising:

a transport frame management unit for

creating MAC transport frames through transport frames if the transport frames are generated from an upper protocol and application layer unit,

classifying, by kinds, the created MAC transport frames in a MAC layer, and

managing the classified MAC transport frames by queues, wherein said kinds comprise beacon frames, asynchronous streams and isochronous streams;

a first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a transport memory control unit for transmitting the transport frames stored in the first-stage transport frame storage unit at a high speed;

a second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit by the transport memory control unit;

a second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit by the transport memory control unit; and

a transport frame transmission unit for grasping a position of the corresponding frame through the storage information stored in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit if a transmission time of the transport frames is determined, reading and transmitting the transport frames stored in the second-stage transport frame storage unit to a physical layer unit.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit comprises:

a beacon queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the beacon frames from the transport frame management unit;

a management queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about management frames from the transport frame management unit;

an asynchronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the asynchronous streams from the transport frame management unit; and

an isochronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the isochronous streams from the transport frame management unit.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit comprises:

a beacon queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the beacon frames from the transport memory control unit;

a management queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about management frames from the transport memory control unit;

an asynchronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the asynchronous streams from the transport memory control unit; and

an isochronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the isochronous streams from the transport memory control unit.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the buffer descriptor of the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit comprises:

a validity bit for indicating validity of data;

a length field for indicating length information of the transport frame;

a stream index field for discriminating streams of the transport frames; and

a reserved field that is a reserved space.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the buffer descriptor of the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit has a size of 8 bytes.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transport frame transmission unit comprises:

a transmission timing controller for grasping the position of the corresponding frame using the information of the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit if a transmission time of the specified transport frame is determined, reading and transmitting the corresponding transport frame stored in the second-stage transport frame storage unit to the physical layer unit; and

a frame check sequence generator for creating a frame check sequence (FCS) to be added when the transmission timing controller transmits the transport frame, and transmitting the FCS to the physical layer unit.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transport frame comprises:

a data rate field for providing data rate information to the physical layer unit;

a payload length field for providing payload length information of the transport frame to the physical layer unit;

a MAC header field for indicating header information of the MAC frame;

a divided frame existence/non-existence field including a “

More_MPDU”

bit for indicating an existence/non-existence of the divided frame if the transport frame is divided and transmitted; and

a payload field for indicating data information of the transport frame.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transport frame management unit comprises:

a data frame controller for creating the MAC transport frames, and classifying the created MAC transport frames according to said kinds; and

a management frame controller for creating management frames requested from the upper protocol and application layer unit or required for a MAC protocol.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a transfer beacon queue which comprises in the recited order:

a beacon queue table in the transport frame management unit for managing the beacon frames,

the first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the beacon frames to be transferred under the control of the transport frame management unit,

a first-stage beacon queue buffer descriptor in the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the beacon frames to be transferred;

a second-stage beacon queue buffer descriptor in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the beacon frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit via the transport memory control unit; and

the second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the beacon frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit via the transport memory control unit in an area accessible by the transport frame transmission unit.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a transmission management and asynchronous queue which comprises in the recited order:

management/asynchronous queue tables in the transport frame management unit for managing the asynchronous frames by destination addresses,

the first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing asynchronous transport frames to be transferred under the control of the transport frame management unit,

first-stage management/asynchronous queue buffer descriptors in the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the asynchronous transport frames to be transferred;

second-stage management/asynchronous queue buffer descriptors in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the asynchronous transport frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit via the transport memory control unit; and

the second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the asynchronous transport frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit via the transport memory control unit in an area accessible by the transport frame transmission unit.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a transfer isochronous queue which comprises in the recited order:

a transfer isochronous queue SI (Stream Index) table in the transport frame management unit for managing the isochronous steams by stream indexes, and an isochronous queue DEVID table in the transport frame management unit for managing the isochronous streams of the same stream index by destinations,

the first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the isochronous transport frames to be transferred under the control of the transport frame management unit,

a first-stage isochronous queue buffer descriptor in the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the isochronous transport frames to be transferred;

a second-stage isochronous queue buffer descriptor in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing the storage information about the isochronous transport frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit via the transport memory control unit; and

the second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the isochronous transport frames transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit via the transport memory control unit in an area accessible by the transport frame transmission unit.

2. An apparatus for transmitting WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) MAC (Medium Access Control) frames, said apparatus comprising:

a transport frame management unit for creating MAC transport frames though transport frames if the transport frames are generated from an upper protocol and application layer unit, classifying the created MAC transport frames by kinds, and managing the classified MAC transport frames by queues;

a first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a transport memory control unit for transmitting the transport frames stored in the first-stage transport frame storage unit at a high speed;

a second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit by the transport memory control unit;

a second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit by the transport memory control unit; and

a transport frame transmission unit for grasping a position of the corresponding frame though the storage information stored in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit if a transmission time of the transport frames is determined, reading and transmitting the transport frames stored in the second-stage transport frame storage unit to a physical layer unit;

wherein the transport frame management unit comprises;

a data frame controller for creating the MAC transport frames, classifying the created MAC transport frames according to a traffic characteristic, and managing the classified MAC transport frames;

a management frame controller for creating management frames requested from the upper protocol and application layer unit or required for a MAC protocol;

a transfer queue controller for receiving the transport frames and the management frames from the data frame controller and the management frame controller, respectively, storing and managing the transport frames and the management frames by kinds;

a transport frame queue table for storing by kinds the transport frames and the management frames under the control of the transfer queue controller;

a transport frame buffer controller for receiving the transport frames from the transfer queue controller, storing and managing the transport frames in the first-stage transport frame storage unit; and

a transport frame control information controller for receiving the storage information of the transport frames from the transfer queue controller, storing and managing the storage information in the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the transfer queue controller comprises:

a beacon queue controller for storing and managing beacon frames classified by the data frame controller using the transport frame queue table;

a management queue controller for storing and managing the management frames created through the management frame controller using the transport frame queue table;

an asynchronous queue controller for storing and managing asynchronous streams classified by the data frame controller using the transport frame queue table; and

an isochronous queue controller for storing and managing isochronous streams classified by the data frame controller using the transport frame queue table.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the transport frame queue table comprises:

a beacon queue table for managing the beacon frames according to the traffic characteristic and user'"'"'s priority information under the control of the transfer queue controller;

a management queue table for managing the management frames under the control of the transfer queue controller;

an asynchronous queue table for managing the asynchronous streams under the control of the transfer queue controller; and

an isochronous queue table for managing the isochronous streams under the control of the transfer queue controller.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the isochronous queue table comprises:

an SI (Stream Index) table for managing the isochronous streams by stream indexes; and

a DEVID table for classifying and managing the isochronous streams of the same stream index by destinations.

7. An apparatus for transmitting WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) MAC (Medium Access Control) frames, said apparatus comprising:

a transport frame management unit for creating MAC transport frames though transport frames if the transport frames are generated from an upper protocol and application layer unit, classifying the created MAC transport frames by kinds, and managing the classified MAC transport frames by queues;

a first-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a first-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames under the management of the transport frame management unit;

a transport memory control unit for transmitting the transport frames stored in the first-stage transport frame storage unit at a high speed;

a second-stage transport frame storage unit for storing the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame storage unit by the transport memory control unit;

a second-stage transport frame control information storage unit for storing storage information about the transport frames read and transferred from the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit by the transport memory control unit; and

a transport frame transmission unit for grasping a position of the corresponding frame though the storage information stored in the second-stage transport frame control information storage unit if a transmission time of the transport frames is determined, reading and transmitting the transport frames stored in the second-stage transport frame storage unit to a physical layer unit;

wherein the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit comprises;

a beacon queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the beacon frames from the transport frame management unit;

a management queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the management frames from the transport frame management unit;

an asynchronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the asynchronous streams from the transport frame management unit; and

an isochronous queue buffer descriptor for receiving and storing the storage information about the isochronous streams from the transport frame management unit; and

wherein the buffer descriptor of the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit comprises;

a validity bit for indicating validity of data;

an interrupt bit for indicating whether an interrupt is reported after the transmission of the transport frames to the transport frame management unit is completed;

a frame address field for indicating a first-stage storage position of the transport frames;

a length field for indicating length information of the transport frame;

a stream index field for discriminating streams of the transport frames; and

a reserved field that is a reserved space.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the buffer descriptor of the first-stage transport frame control information storage unit has a size of 8 bytes.

14. A method for transmitting WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) MAC (Medium Access Control) frames between an upper protocol and application layer unit and a physical layer unit, the method comprising:

creating transport frames as the MAC frames if the transport frames are generated from the upper protocol and application layer unit;

classifying, in a MAC layer, the MAC frames by kinds, said kinds comprising beacon frames, asynchronous streams and isochronous streams;

storing the MAC frames in a first-stage transport frame buffer area;

storing storage information about the transport frames, which are stored in the first-stage transport frame buffer area, in a first-stage transport frame control information buffer area;

transferring the MAC frames stored in the first-stage transport frame buffer area to a second-stage transport frame buffer area that can be accessed by a transport frame control device;

transferring storage information stored in the first-stage transport frame control information buffer area to a second-stage transport frame control information buffer area that can be accessed by the transport frame control device; and

transmitting the transport frames stored in the second-stage transport frame buffer area to the physical layer unit using the storage information stored in the second-stage transport frame control information buffer area if a frame transmission time is determined.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transport frame comprises:

a data rate field for providing data rate information to the physical layer unit;

a payload length field for providing payload length information of the transport frame to the physical layer unit;

a MAC header field for indicating header information of the MAC frame;

a divided frame existence/non-existence field including a “

More_MPDU”

bit for indicating an existence/non-existence of the divided frame if the transport frame is divided and transmitted; and

a payload field for indicating data information of the transport frame.