Communication system, a repeater terminal in a communication system and a communication method

• US 7,957,334 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2006
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The University of Electro-Communications
• Inventors: Kojima, Erina, Fujii, Takeo
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Chirag G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shivers; Ashley L
• Application Number:
  US11/886,520
• Publication Number:
  US 20080165721A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,964 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0668 Orthogonal systems, e.g. using Alamouti codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1858 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/188 Time-out mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

This invention provides a communication system, a repeater terminal in the communication system and a communication method for improving the characteristics in a multi-hop communication by a diversity gain and reduces the power consumption by wasteful retransmission in packet transmission at a wireless terminal. When a transmitter terminal S sends a packet first time, repeater terminals R1-R13 perform a data transmission by retransmission at all the terminals which received the packet. When a transmitter terminal S sends a packet second time, a repeater terminal determines its own contribution based on the hop numbers of the repeating in the packet transmission and the return ACK (or NACK) repeating. The repeater terminal with a high contribution autonomously determines to be in “repeater mode” and the repeater terminal with a low contribution autonomously determines to be in “sleep mode”.

Claims

1. A communication system for transmitting packet data from a transmitter terminal to a destination terminal through at least one of a plurality of repeater terminals, comprising:

a first transmitting means for transmitting the packet data from the transmitter terminal toward the destination terminal;

a receiving means for receiving a response signal that is for the packet data transmitted by the first transmitting means and is transmitted from the destination terminal; and

a second transmitting means for transmitting a control signal including information for the transmitter terminal and the destination terminal and information for the packet data depending on presence or absence and type of the response signal;

wherein the first transmitting means further includes a means for repeating the packet data after sending the control signal from the second transmitting means;

the destination terminal includes a third transmitting means for sending a response signal to the transmitter terminal in response to the packet data transmitted from the first transmitting means;

the plurality of repeater terminals each comprises;

a first repeating means for receiving the packet data and sending the packet data to the destination terminal or one or more of the plurality of repeater terminals, and

a second repeating means for sending the response signal received by the receiving means to the transmitter terminal or one or more of the plurality of repeater terminals, and

a determining means for determining its contribution numerically based on a number of repeating times of the packet data repeated by the respective first repeating means and number of repeating times of the response signal repeated by the respective second repeating means;

each of the plurality of repeater terminals enters into a repeating mode for continuously sending the packet data when the determining means determines that the respective contribution is high, or a numeric value for the contribution reaches a predetermined threshold or higher; and

each of the repeater terminals enters into a sleep mode for repeating no packet data when the determining means determines that the respective contribution is low, or the numeric value for the contribution does not reach a predetermined threshold or higher.

2. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein

STBC encoding is performed using the packet data retransmitted by the first transmitting means and the packet data transmitted by the first repeating means, and

the packet data are transmitted.

3. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of repeater terminals comprises:

a memory means for storing the packet data with an error which was generated during the reception at the first repeater means; and

a combining means for combining the packet data retransmitted from the transmitter terminal by the first transmitting means with the packet data having the error stored in the memory means, STBC encoding being performed using the packet data further retransmitted from the first transmitting means by the first transmitting means and the packet data combined using the combining means being transmitted by the repeater terminal.

4. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein a type of the response signal from the destination terminal is an ACK signal when the packet data are received without error and the type is a NACK signal when the packet data are received with error, and the second transmitting means sends the control signal when no control signal is received from the destination signal or the type of the control signal is a NACK signal.

5. A repeater terminal for repeating packet data which is sent from a transmitter terminal to a destination terminal, comprising:

a first repeating means for receiving the packet data sent from the transmitter terminal and sending the packet data to the destination terminal or another repeater terminal of a plurality of repeater terminals;

a second repeating means for receiving a response signal sent from the destination terminal and sending the response signal to the transmitter terminal or another repeater terminal; and

a determining means for determining its contribution numerically based on a number times the packet data is repeated by the first repeating means and number of times the response signal is repeated by the second repeating means,

wherein each of the repeater terminals enters into a repeating mode for continuously sending the packet data when the determining means determines that the contribution is high, or a numeric value for the contribution reaches a predetermined threshold or higher, and

each of the plurality of repeater terminals enters into a sleep mode for repeating no packet data when the determining means determines that the contribution is low, or the numeric value for the contribution does not reach a predetermined threshold or higher.

6. A repeater terminal according to claim 5, wherein the repeating mode and the sleep mode are determined by the determining means whenever the packet data are sent from the transmitter terminal.

7. A communication method for transmitting packet data from a transmitter terminal to a destination terminal by repetition using a plurality of repeater terminals, comprising the steps of:

transmitting the packet data from the transmitter terminal toward the destination terminal;

receiving a response signal for the packet data transmitted at the transmitter terminal;

transmitting a control signal including information for the transmitter terminal and the destination terminal and information for the packet data depending on presence or absence and type of the response signal;

retransmitting the packet data which was sent after sending the control signal;

sending a response signal for the sent packet data toward the transmitter terminal from the destination terminal;

receiving the packet data at one of the plurality of repeater terminals and subsequently sending the packet data to one or more of the plurality of repeater terminals;

receiving the response signal at one of the plurality of repeater terminals and subsequently sending the response signal to the transmitter terminal or one or more of the plurality of repeater terminals;

determining a contribution of each respective repeater terminal numerically based on a number of repeating times of the packet data and number of repeating times of the response signal;

entering the respective repeater terminal into a repeating mode for continuously sending the packet data when the determining means determines that the contribution is high, or a numeric value for the contribution reaches a predetermined threshold or higher; and

entering the respective repeater terminal into a sleep mode for repeating no packet data when the determining means determines that the contribution is low, or the numeric value for the contribution does not reach the predetermined threshold or higher.