Packet concatenation in wireless networks

• US 8,559,437 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2010
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Mishra, Partho P., Goel, Sandesh, Raissinia, Alireza, Jones, Vincent K.
• Primary Examiner(s): HANNON, CHRISTIAN A
• Application Number:
  US12/778,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20100220661A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,252 Days
• Field of Search: 370/393, 370/432, 370/442, 370/445, 370/449, 370/349
• US Class Current: 370/393
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2854 Wide area networks, e.g. public data networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365

Abstract

A wireless network includes a transmitting device and a plurality of receiving devices. The transmitting device is configured to receive a plurality of data packets, including a first data packet and a second data packet, prepare a preamble, prepare a signal field for each of the plurality of data packets, including a first signal field based on the first data packet and a second signal field based on the second data packet, and broadcast the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet.

Claims

1. A transmitting device in a wireless network, wherein the transmitting device is configured to:

receive at least a first data packet and a second data packet;

prepare a preamble;

prepare at least a first signal field for the first data packet and a second signal field for the second data packet; and

transmit at least the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet to a receiving device;

wherein the first signal field comprises a first continuation field and the second signal field comprises a second continuation field.

2. The transmitting device of claim 1, further configured to transmit the concatenated packet to the receiving device across an 802.11-based network.

3. The transmitting device of claim 1, wherein the first data packet is immediately preceded in time by the first signal field and the second data packet is immediately preceded in time by the second signal field.

4. The transmitting device of claim 1, wherein the first continuation field has a first state or a second state and the second continuation field has the first state or the second state.

5. The transmitting device of claim 4, wherein the first state indicates a subsequent packet in the concatenated packet and the second state indicates no subsequent packet in the concatenated packet.

6. The transmitting device of claim 1, further configured to receive at least three packets and transmit at least the preamble and the at least three packets as the concatenated packet to the receiving device.

7. The transmitting device of claim 6, further configured to prepare at least three signal fields corresponding to the at least three data packets, wherein each of the at least three signal fields immediately precedes a corresponding data packet of the at least three data packets in time in the concatenated packet.

8. The transmitting device of claim 7, wherein the last signal field of the at least three signal fields comprises an indication that no further data packets follow the corresponding last data packet in the concatenated packet.

9. A wireless communication system, comprising:

means for transmitting a concatenated packet across a network, the concatenated packet comprising a preamble, a plurality of data packets and a plurality of signal fields corresponding to the plurality of data packets; and

means for receiving the concatenated packet;

wherein the plurality of signal fields comprises a plurality of continuation fields.

10. The wireless communication system of claim 9, wherein the network is an 802.11-based network.

11. The wireless communication system of claim 9, wherein each signal field of the plurality of signal fields immediately precedes each corresponding data packet of the plurality of data packets in time.

12. The wireless communication system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of continuation fields each comprises a first state or a second state.

13. The wireless communication system of claim 12, wherein the first state indicates further packets in the concatenated packet.

14. The wireless communication system of claim 12, wherein the second state indicates no further packets in the concatenated packet.

15. The wireless communication system of claim 9, wherein the concatenated packet comprises the preamble, a first signal field, a first data packet, a second signal field, a second data packet, a third signal field signaling the end of the concatenated packet and a third data packet.

16. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a transmitting device, at least a first data packet and a second data packet;

concatenating the first data packet, a first signal field, a second signal field and the second data packet to a concatenated packet;

appending a preamble to the concatenated packet; and

transmitting the concatenated packet across a wireless network to a receiving device;

wherein the first signal field comprises a first continuation field and the second signal field comprises a second continuation field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the wireless network is an 802.11-based network.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first signal field immediately precedes the first data packet in time and the second signal field immediately precedes the second data packet in time.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein first continuation field comprises a first state or a second state and the second continuation field comprises a first state or a second state.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving at least a third packet and the concatenating further comprises concatenating the first data packet, the second data packet and the third data packet to the concatenated packet.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the concatenating further comprises concatenating the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, the second data packet, a third signal field and the third data packet.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving, at the transmitting device, a plurality of data packets, the concatenating further comprises concatenating a plurality of signal fields corresponding to the plurality of data packets and the plurality of data packets into a concatenated packet, wherein the last of the plurality of signal fields comprises an indication that no further data packets follow the corresponding last data packet of the plurality of data packets.

23. A computer readable medium having stored there on processor executable instructions that cause a computer to perform a process, the process comprising:

receiving at least a first data packet and a second data packet at a transmitting device;

preparing a preamble and at least a first signal field for the first data packet and a second signal field for the second data packet; and

transmitting at least the preamble, the first data packet, the first signal field, the second signal field, and the second data packet as a concatenated packet across a wireless network to a receiving device;

wherein the first signal field comprises a first continuation field.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting the concatenated packet to the receiving device across an 802.11-based network.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting at least the preamble, the first signal field, the first data packet, the second signal field, and the second data packet as the concatenated packet to the receiving device.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25, wherein the first data packet is immediately preceded in time by the first signal field.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the second data packet is immediately preceded in time by the second signal field.

28. The transmitting device of claim 23, wherein the first continuation field has a first state or a second state.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the second signal field comprises a second continuation field.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the second continuation field has the first state or the second state.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the first state indicates a subsequent packet in the concatenated packet.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the second state indicates no subsequent packet in the concatenated packet.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving at least three data packets.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the process further comprises preparing at least three signal fields corresponding to the at least three data packets.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting at least the preamble, the at least three signal fields and the at least three data packets as the concatenated packet to the receiving device.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, wherein each of the at least three signal fields immediately precedes each of the at least three data packets.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein the last of the at least three signal fields comprises an indication that no further data packets follow the last of the at least three data packets.