Robust, inferentially synchronized transmission of compressed transport-layer-protocol headers

• US 7,539,188 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liao, HongBin, Zhang, Qian, Zhang, Ya-Qin, Zhu, Wenwu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton; Dang T
• Assistant Examiner(s): RANDHAWA, MANDISH K
• Application Number:
  US11/203,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20050286523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,380 Days
• Field of Search: 370/392, 370/474, 370/349, 370/389, 370/395.52
• 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 47/37 Slow start
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• 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 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence

Abstract

An implementation of a technology, described herein, for transmitting compressed network transport-layer-protocol headers in a speedy, efficient, inferentially synchronized, and robust manner. An implementation, described herein, models the transmission of compressed headers to the congestion procedure of the network transport-layer protocol (e.g., TCP'"'"'s). Doing so, the sender of the compressed headers can infer whether the receiver correctly received them. Unlike the slow direct synchronization employed by conventional schemes, this implementation of the present claimed invention inferentially synchronizes by modeling after the congestion procedure of the network transport-layer protocol. This is inherently faster than direct synchronization. Since the implementation performs well over both noiseless and noisy links, it is particularly suited to use over wireless communications channels. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. A method for efficient transmission of network transport-layer protocol headers via a communications link, the method comprising:

obtaining—

by a transmitter configured to facilitate efficient transmission of network transport-layer protocol headers via a communications link—

transport-layer protocol packets having associated transport-layer protocol headers;

compressing—

by the transmitter—

the associated headers;

feedback-independently transmitting of a plurality of the compressed headers via the communications link, the transmitting comprising;

adjusting a sliding window within which the plurality of the compressed headers are transmitted, wherein the adjusting is modeled to react to network window-size changes that results from the congestion procedures of the communications link;

using the sliding window, encoding the plurality of the compressed headers; and

sending the resulting encoded plurality of compressed headers.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising inferentially determining whether there is an inconsistent context, wherein an inconsistent context is when one or more headers are not properly received by a receiver on the communications link.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

inferentially determining whether there is an inconsistent context, wherein an inconsistent context is when one or more headers are not properly received by a receiver on the communications link;

if so, then refreshing the context to make the context consistent.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein, for the compressing, the headers are compressed losslessly.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the communications link is wireless.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the network transport-layer protocol is TCP.

7. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, perform the method as recited in claim 1.

8. A computer network comprising a computer comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, perform the method as recited in claim 1.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs the method as recited in claim 1.

10. A system for efficient transmission of network transport-layer protocol headers via a communications link, the system comprising:

a memory comprising a set of computer program instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute the computer program instructions, which comprise;

obtaining transport-layer protocol packets having associated transport-layer protocol headers;

compressing the associated headers;

feedback-independently transmitting of a plurality of the compressed headers via the communications link, the transmitting comprising;

adjusting a sliding window within which the plurality of the compressed headers are transmitted, wherein the adjusting is modeled to react to network window-size changes that results from the congestion procedures of the communications link.

11. A system as recited in claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer program instructions, which comprises inferentially determining whether there is an inconsistent context, wherein an inconsistent context is when one or more headers are not properly received by a receiver on the communications link.