Efficient checksum communication between devices

• US 9,509,444 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Scherr, Wolfgang, Reidl, Christian, Strasser, Michael, Summa, Veikko
• Primary Examiner(s): ABRAHAM, ESAW T
• Application Number:
  US14/317,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20150269019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/09 Error detection only, e.g. using cyclic redundancy check [CRC] codes or single parity bit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0046 Code rate detection or code type detection H04L1/0038 takes precedence; detection of the data rate H04L25/0262; for packet format H04L1/0091
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0061 Error detection codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/24 Testing correct operation

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided wherein feedback is included in a checksum. An example method includes communicating between a first device and a second device. The method further includes including feedback information used by the first device as input to a checksum calculation, wherein the feedback information is not communicated concurrently with the checksum from the first device to the second device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

in a first device, calculating a checksum, where the checksum is calculated using data to be communicated to a second device, and information;

communicating the data to be communicated and the checksum to the second device, while concurrently not communicating the information to the second device;

receiving, at the second device, the data and the checksum; and

determining, at the second device, whether the checksum is correct based on the data received and further information not communicated from the first device to the second device, where the information or the further information comprises at least one of an identification of the first device, a counter value generated at the first device, a measurement range used by the first device for a measurement, or a configuration of the first device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

independently determining at least part of the information at the first device and at least part of the further information at the second device based on a predefined scheme which is applied by the first and second devices to a data communication between the first and the second device;

or

selecting at least part of the further information at the second device and

communicating the at least part of the further information to the first device, wherein at least part of the information corresponds to the at least part of the further information as received at the first device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting the counter value to a predefined value when the checksum received at the second device is determined not to be valid by the second device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein setting the counter value to a defined value comprises sending a dedicated trigger pulse from the second device to the first device, and setting the predefined counter value in response to receiving the dedicated trigger pulse.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the dedicated trigger pulse corresponds to one of an unused identification or a trigger pulse different to any used identification or data pulse.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein setting the counter value to a defined value comprises omitting a trigger signal from the second device to the first device, and setting the counter to the predefined value in response to detecting the omission of the trigger pulse.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising trying different counter values when the checksum received at the second device is determined not to be valid by the second device to determine a current counter value.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device comprises at least one of a master device or a control unit.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a sensor.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device and the second device communicate on the basis of an edge-based pulse width modulation protocol.

11. A system comprising:

a first device;

a second device; and

a communication path between the first and second device, wherein the first device is configured to calculate a checksum, where the checksum is calculated using data to be communicated to a second device, and information; and

to communicate the data to be communicated and the checksum to the second device, while concurrently not communicating the information to the second device,

wherein the second device is configured to receive the data and the checksum; and

to determine whether the checksum is correct based on the data received and further information not communicated from the first device to the second device, where the information or the further information comprises at least one of an identification of the first device, a counter value generated at the first device, a measurement range used by the first device for a measurement, or a configuration of the first device.

12. A device, comprising:

a receiver that receives a checksum together with data from a further device, and

a checksum verification entity that determines whether the checksum is correct based on the data received and further information not received concurrently with the data and the checksum, where the further information comprises at least one of an identification of the further device, a counter value, a measurement range used by the further device for a measurement, or a configuration of the further device.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein information associated with the checksum comprises information comprised in a data frame associated with the checksum.