Method and system for processing acknowledgments in a wireless communications network

• US 7,702,284 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2003
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Spyder Navigations LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Palin, Arto, Salokannel, Juha, Reunamäki, Jukka
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro; Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ajayi; Joel
• Application Number:
  US10/660,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20050058116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,412 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/67.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7163 using impulse radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/16 in which the return channel carries supervisory signals, e.g. repetition request signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint

Abstract

A method and system of controlling a multicast transmission. The method and system transmits a data packet to multiple slave devices across a UWB wireless network, and detects the reception of any acknowledgement transmissions. These acknowledgement transmissions indicate reception of the data packet by the slave devices. In addition, the method and system retransmit the data packet to at least one of the slave devices when an acknowledgment is not detected for each of the slave devices. The acknowledgments may be received from the UWB network.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a multicast transmission, comprising:

transmitting a data packet to a plurality of devices across an ultra wideband (UWB) wireless network;

detecting the reception of any acknowledgement transmissions, wherein each acknowledgement transmission indicates reception of the data packet by a respective one of the plurality of devices;

generating a correlation signal based on correlating received signals with a predetermined acknowledgment sequence;

retransmitting the data packet to at least one of the plurality of devices when an acknowledgement is not detected for each of the plurality of devices;

counting the number of consecutive times an acknowledgement packet is not received from a particular one of the plurality of devices; and

forgoing retransmission of the data packet when said number of consecutive times exceeds a first predetermined threshold and when the correlation signal fails to exceed a second predetermined threshold during each of a plurality of time slots allocated to respective ones of the plurality of devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting comprises receiving said any acknowledgement transmissions from the UWB wireless network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting comprises receiving said any acknowledgement transmissions from a transmission media different than the UWB wireless network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the different transmission media comprises Bluetooth.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the correlation signal comprises correlating received signals with the predetermined acknowledgement sequence during a time slot allocated to the devices for acknowledgement transmission.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the detecting further comprises:

counting the number of times the correlation signal exceeds a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said counting is performed during a time division multiple access (TDMA) time slot allocated to upstream transmissions from the plurality of devices.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the retransmitting comprises retransmitting the data packet when the number of times the correlation signal exceeds the predetermined threshold is less than the number of the plurality of devices.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the time slots comprise

time division multiple access (TDMA) time slots, wherein the TDMA time slots are allocated to respective ones of the plurality of devices.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the retransmitting comprises retransmitting the data packet when the correlation signal fails to exceed the predetermined threshold during each of the plurality of time division multiple access (TDMA) time slots.

11. A wireless communications device, comprising:

a transmission buffer configured to store a packet for transmission across an ultra wideband (UWB) wireless network to a plurality of devices;

a retransmission buffer configured to store a retransmission packet, the retransmission packet being previously transmitted across the UWB wireless network; and

a retransmission controller configured to receive one or more acknowledgement transmissions from the plurality of devices,

wherein the wireless communications device is configured to count the number of consecutive times an acknowledgement packet is not received from a particular one of the plurality of devices;

to generate a correlation signal based on correlating received signals with a predetermined acknowledgment sequence; and

to forgo retransmission of the data packet when said number of consecutive times exceeds a predetermined threshold and when the correlation signal fails to exceed a second predetermined threshold during each of a plurality of time slots allocated to respective ones of the plurality of devices.

12. The wireless communications device of claim 11, wherein said acknowledgement transmissions are received from a transmission media different then the UWB wireless network.

13. The wireless communications device of claim 12, wherein said the different transmission media comprises Bluetooth.

20. The wireless communications device of claim 11, wherein the retransmission controller is further configured to cause the retransmission buffer to send the retransmission packet to the plurality of devices across the UWB wireless network when an acknowledgement is not detected for each of the plurality of devices.

14. A system for controlling a multicast transmission, comprising:

means for transmitting a data packet to a plurality of devices across an ultra wideband (UWB) wireless network;

means for detecting the reception of any acknowledgement transmissions, wherein each acknowledgement transmission indicates reception of the data packet by a respective one of the plurality of devices;

means for generating a correlation signal based on correlating received signals with a predetermined acknowledgment sequence;

means for retransmitting the data packet to the one or more devices when an acknowledgement is not detected for each of the one or more devices;

means for counting the number of consecutive times an acknowledgement packet is not received from a particular one of the plurality of devices; and

means for forgoing retransmission of the data packet when said number of consecutive times exceeds a predetermined threshold and when the correlation signal fails to exceed a second predetermined threshold during each of a plurality of time slots allocated to respective ones of the plurality of devices.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for receiving said any acknowledgement transmissions from a transmission media different than the UWB wireless network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the different transmission media comprises Bluetooth.

17. A computer-readable medium encoded with processing instructions for implementing operations for controlling multicast transmission, performed by a wireless communication device, the operations comprising:

transmitting a data packet to a plurality of devices across an ultra wideband (UWB) wireless network;

detecting the reception of any acknowledgement transmissions, wherein each acknowledgement transmission indicates reception of the data packet by a respective one of the plurality of devices;

generating a correlation signal based on correlating received signals with a predetermined acknowledgment sequence;

retransmitting the data packet to at least one of the plurality of devices when an acknowledgement is not detected for each of the plurality of devices;

counting the number of consecutive times an acknowledgement packet is not received from a particular one of the plurality of devices; and

forgoing retransmission of the data packet when said number of consecutive times exceeds a predetermined threshold and when the correlation signal fails to exceed a second predetermined threshold during each of a plurality of time slots allocated to respective ones of the plurality of devices.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the detecting comprises receiving said any acknowledgement transmissions from a transmission media different than the UWB wireless network.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the different transmission media comprises Bluetooth.