Method and node for transmitting data over a communication network using negative acknowledgment

• US 8,169,914 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Network Technologies India Private Limited (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Pvt Ltd. (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Bajpai, Parimal, Jain, Vikal Kumar, Akella, Aparna Sarma
• Primary Examiner(s): Sam, Phirin
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAMPTON, TARELL A
• Application Number:
  US12/404,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,142 Days
• Field of Search: 370/400, 370/229, 370/235, 370/236, 714/748, 714/749
• US Class Current: 370/236
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1628 List acknowledgements, i.e. the acknowledgement message consisting of a list of identifiers, e.g. of sequence numbers H04L1/1614 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1864 ARQ related signaling H04L1/1607 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1893 Physical mapping arrangements physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1896 ARQ related signaling

Abstract

A method of transmitting data over a communication network using negative acknowledgment is presented. In the method, a stream of data packets is transmitted from a first node of the network to a second node of the network. All but at least two of the stream of data packets is successfully received at the second node, wherein the data packets that are not successfully received are not located sequentially within the stream of data packets. A status packet is transmitted from the second node to the first node, wherein the status packet includes an indication of each of the data packets that were not successfully received. In response to receiving the status packet at the first node, the data packets that were not successfully received at the second node are retransmitted from the first node to the second node in response to receiving the status packet.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data over a communication network using negative acknowledgment, the method comprising:

transmitting a stream of data packets from a first node of the network to a second node of the network;

receiving a status packet transmitted from the second node to the first node after the second node successfully receives all but at least two of the stream of data packets, wherein the at least two of the stream of data packets are non-sequential within the stream of data packets, and wherein the status packet is transmitted from the second node to the first node, and wherein the status packet comprises an indication of each of the at least two of the stream of data packets; and

retransmitting the at least two of the stream of data packets from the first node to the second node in response to receiving the status packet;

wherein each of the stream of data packets transmitted form the first node to the second node comprises a timestamp; and

wherein the status packet is transmitted from the second node to the first node when at least one of the stream of data packets subsequent to at least one of the at least two of the stream of data packets is received at the second node, and the timestamp of the at least one of the stream of data packets is less than a time at which the at least one of the stream of data packets was received at the second node, minus a measured jitter of the stream of data packets.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the status packet further comprises an indication of a last data packet of a contiguous plurality of the stream of data packets received successfully at the second node, wherein the contiguous plurality of data packets precedes a first of the at least two of the stream of data packets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the status packet further comprises an indication of a first data packet of a contiguous plurality of the stream of data packets, and an indication of a last data packet of a contiguous plurality of the stream of data packets;

the contiguous plurality of the stream of data packets comprises the at least two of the stream of data packets; and

those of the contiguous plurality of the stream of data packets not comprising the at least two of the stream of data packets not successfully received were received successfully at the second node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the indication of the first of the at least two of the stream of data packets comprises a sequence number of the first of the at least two of the stream of data packets.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the indication of the second of the at least two of the stream of data packets identifies a number of packets that the second of the at least two of the stream of data packets follows the first of the at least two of the stream of data packets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each of the retransmitted data packets comprises a sequence number of the associated data packet of the stream of data packets originally transmitted from the first node to the second node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the status packet comprises a timestamp indicating when the status packet was transmitted from the second node to the first node;

each of the retransmitted data packets comprises an echoed timestamp comprising the timestamp of the status packet; and

the method further comprises calculating a roundtrip time at the second node, wherein the roundtrip time is based upon a time at which one the retransmitted data packets is received at the second node minus the echoed timestamp of the one of the retransmitted data packets.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting a second status packet from the second node to the first node if the second node does not receive the retransmitted data packets from the first node within a time period of a previous transmission of the status packet, wherein the time period is based on the roundtrip time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the measured jitter is based upon an arrival time at the second node of, minus a timestamp of, each of a plurality of the stream of data packets.

10. A network node, comprising:

a communication interface configured to transmit a stream of data packets to another network node, and to receive a status packet from the other network node indicating that at least two of the stream of data packets were not received successfully at the other node, wherein the at least two of the stream of data packets are non-sequential within the stream of data packets; and

control circuitry configured to process the status packet and cause the communication interface to retransmit the at least two of the stream of data packets to the other network node;

wherein the control circuitry is configured to control a rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets to the other network node, wherein the rate is based on an estimated bandwidth of a connection between the network node and the other network node, wherein the estimated bandwidth is recalculated periodically;

and wherein the control circuitry is configured to recalculate the estimated bandwidth by increasing the estimated bandwidth by a first percentage of the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets if a loss percentage of the stream of data packets at the other network node is below a predetermined level; and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to set the estimated bandwidth to a mean of the estimated bandwidth and the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets if the loss percentage of the stream of data packets at the other network node is at least at the predetermined level.

11. The network node of claim 10, further comprising:

memory buffers, wherein each of the memory buffers is configured to store one of the stream of data packets transferred to the other network node;

wherein the status packet further indicates a set of the stream of data packets that were received successfully at the other network node; and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to release each of the memory buffers that stores one of the set of the stream of data packets.

12. The network node of claim 10, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to cause the communication interface to retransmit the at least two of the stream of data packets to the other network node at the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets to the other network node.

13. The network node of claim 10, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to recalculate the estimated bandwidth by increasing the estimated bandwidth by a second percentage of the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets if the estimated bandwidth has been increased a predetermined number of consecutive times, wherein the second percentage is greater than the first percentage.

14. The network node of claim 10, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to initiate a transmission of at least one of the stream of data packets by way of the communication interface in response to an occurrence of at least one of a time period, an addition of a data packet to be transmitted in the stream of data packets, and a receipt of the status packet from the other network node at the communication interface.

15. A network node, comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive a stream of data packets from another network node;

memory buffers, wherein each of the memory buffers is configured to store one of the stream of data packets received from the other network node; and

control circuitry configured to generate a status packet indicating that at least two of the stream of data packets were not received successfully at the communication interface, wherein the at least two of the stream of data packets are non-sequential within the stream of data packets, and to transfer the status packet to the communication interface;

wherein the control circuitry is configured to include an indication of a number of memory buffers not storing one of the stream of data packets in the status packet; and

wherein the communication interface is configured to transmit the status packet to the other network node, and wherein the indication of the number of memory buffers not storing one of the stream of data packets is higher that an actual number of memory buffers not storing one of the stream of data packets when a roundtrip time between the network node and the other network node attains a predetermined level.

16. The network node of claim 15, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to cause the communication interface to transmit a second status packet to the other network node if an elapsed time since the first transmission of the status packet exceeds a timeout period based on a roundtrip time between the network node and the other network node, and the at least two of the stream of data packets are not successfully received at the communication interface during the elapsed time.

17. The network node of claim 15, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to generate a second status packet comprising an indication of at least one of the stream of data packets, wherein each of the stream of data packets up to the at least one of the stream of data packets have been successfully received by the communication interface; and

the communication interface is configured to transfer the second status packet to the other network node.

18. The node of claim 17, further comprising:

memory buffers, wherein each of the memory buffers is configured to store one of the stream of data packets received from the other network node;

wherein the control circuitry is configured to generate the second status packet when a percentage of the memory buffers of the other network node storing data packets of the stream of data packets successfully received but not acknowledged to the other network node attains a predetermined level.

19. The network node of claim 15, wherein:

the control circuitry is configured to generate a second status packet indicating a request for subsequent data packets, wherein the second status packet comprises an indication of the last of the stream of data packets received from the other network node by way of the communication interface; and

the communication interface is configured to periodically transfer the second status packet to the other network node until at least one of the subsequent data packets is received at the communication interface.

20. A network node, comprising:

a communication interface configured to transmit a stream of data packets to another network node, and to receive a status packet from the other network node indicating that at least two of the stream of data packets were not received successfully at the other node, wherein the at least two of the stream of data packets are non-sequential within the stream of data packets; and

control circuitry configured to process the status packet and cause the communication interface to retransmit the at least two of the stream of data packets to the other network node;

wherein the control circuitry is configured to control a rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets to the other network node, wherein the rate is based on an estimated bandwidth of a connection between the network node and the other network node, wherein the estimated bandwidth is recalculated periodically;

wherein the control circuitry is configured to recalculate the estimated bandwidth by increasing the estimated bandwidth by a first percentage of the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets if a loss percentage of the stream of data packets at the other network node is below a predetermined level; and

wherein the control circuitry is configured to recalculate the estimated bandwidth by increasing the estimated bandwidth by a second percentage of the rate at which the communication interface transmits the stream of data packets if the estimated bandwidth has been increased a predetermined number of consecutive times, wherein the second percentage is greater than the first percentage.