Medium access control layer that encapsulates data from a plurality of received data units into a plurality of independently transmittable blocks
First Claim
1. A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprisingproviding a physical layer for handling physical communication over the shared medium;
- providing a high level layer that receives data from a station and supplies high level data units for transmission over the medium;
providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units to the physical layer;
at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units into a stream of sub-frames;
dividing the encapsulated stream into a plurality of pieces with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and
supplying low level data units, at least some of the low level data units each containing a plurality of the pieces into which the encapsulated stream was divided, and at least some of the low level data units containing boundary demarcation information indicating boundaries between the sub-frames in the stream;
wherein at least some information common to the high level data units is not repeated for each high level data unit encapsulated in the stream;
wherein the high level data units each comprise a payload, and encapsulating comprises forming the stream comprising the payloads from a succession of high level data units;
wherein the stream comprises a succession of sub-frames, each sub-frame comprising a header and a plurality of the payloads;
wherein each sub-frame is divided into the plurality of pieces capable of being independently retransmitted; and
wherein division of a sub-frame into the plurality of pieces comprises dividing the sub-frame into a plurality of sub-blocks, and forming at least some pieces from a plurality of sub-blocks.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium; providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units; dividing the encapsulated content into a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments) with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units containing one or more of the plurality of pieces.
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Citations
65 Claims
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1. A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising
providing a physical layer for handling physical communication over the shared medium; -
providing a high level layer that receives data from a station and supplies high level data units for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units into a stream of sub-frames; dividing the encapsulated stream into a plurality of pieces with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units, at least some of the low level data units each containing a plurality of the pieces into which the encapsulated stream was divided, and at least some of the low level data units containing boundary demarcation information indicating boundaries between the sub-frames in the stream; wherein at least some information common to the high level data units is not repeated for each high level data unit encapsulated in the stream; wherein the high level data units each comprise a payload, and encapsulating comprises forming the stream comprising the payloads from a succession of high level data units; wherein the stream comprises a succession of sub-frames, each sub-frame comprising a header and a plurality of the payloads; wherein each sub-frame is divided into the plurality of pieces capable of being independently retransmitted; and wherein division of a sub-frame into the plurality of pieces comprises dividing the sub-frame into a plurality of sub-blocks, and forming at least some pieces from a plurality of sub-blocks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65)
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23. A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising
providing a physical layer for handling physical communication over the shared medium; -
providing a high level layer that receives data from a station and supplies high level data units for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units into a stream of sub-frames; dividing the encapsulated stream into a plurality of pieces with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units, at least some of the low level data units each containing a plurality of the pieces into which the encapsulated stream was divided, and at least some of the low level data units containing boundary demarcation information indicating boundaries between the sub-frames in the stream; wherein at least some information common to the high level data units is not repeated for each high level data unit encapsulated in the stream; wherein the high level data units each comprise a payload, and encapsulating comprises forming the stream comprising the payloads from a succession of high level data units; wherein the stream comprises a succession of sub-frames, each sub-frame comprising a header and a plurality of the payloads; and wherein the stream is divided into a plurality of sub-blocks, wherein a plurality of sub-blocks are grouped to form a segment, with a segment crossing sub-frame boundaries in the stream, wherein a segment constitutes one of the pieces. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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52. A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising
providing a physical layer for handling physical communication over the shared medium; -
providing a high level layer that receives data from a station and supplies high level data units; and providing a layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units to the physical layer; wherein supplying the low level data units comprises encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units into a stream of sub-frames, dividing the encapsulated stream into a plurality of sub-blocks, forming a plurality of pieces, with each piece including one or more sub-blocks, to provide pieces capable of being independently retransmitted, and supplying low level data units, at least some of the low level data units each containing a plurality of the pieces that include the sub-blocks into which the encapsulated content was divided, and at least some of the low level data units containing boundary demarcation information indicating boundaries between the sub-frames in the stream. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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Specification