Systems, methods, and devices for controlling transport of ratelessly coded messages

• US 9,615,395 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 04/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Yu, Yifan, Zhang, Xu, Li, Guangjie, Li, Xiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Jae Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Voltaire, Jean F
• Application Number:
  US14/316,929
• Publication Number:
  US 20150146615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• Field of Search: 370328
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2621 using frequency division multiple access [FDMA] H04B7/2615 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1825 Adaptation of specific ARQ protocol parameters according to transmission conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2607 Cyclic extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0078 Timing of allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/22 using time-division multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0205 : at the air interface dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0069 : in case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0083 : Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/30 : for proactive routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 : using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 : detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 : Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 : based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 : Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 : Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 : Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 : adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 : in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for controlling transport of ratelessly coded messages are disclosed herein. User equipment (UE) may be configured to receive a data object using a plurality of radios having distinct radio protocols. The data object may divided into a plurality of segments, and the segments may be encoded with a random linear network code before transmission. The random linear network code may permit the UE to reassemble each segment from any large enough set of encoded packets. The UE may use delivery control messages with very low overhead to control the flow of packets for each radio. The UE may control the number of packets received for each segment without specifying which particular packets should be sent. The transmitters may transmit the packets with very little overhead, and encoding information for the packets may be included in the packets in a compact form.

Claims

1. A User equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a plurality of transceivers using a plurality of distinct radio protocols, the UE comprising a processor configured to:

transmit a request for a first plurality of packets from a first transceiver over a first radio protocol and a request for a second plurality of packets from a second transceiver over a second radio protocol, wherein the first and second plurality of packets are derived from a current segment of a common data object;

process at least a portion of the first plurality of packets received using a first radio of the UE using the first radio protocol and at least a portion of the second plurality of packets received using a second radio of the UE using the second radio protocol, the first plurality of packets and the second plurality of packets received simultaneously and in parallel by the first radio and the second radio, wherein the first transceiver encodes the portion of the first plurality of packets using a linear network code and the second transceiver encodes the portion of the second plurality of packets using the linear network code;

transmit a semi-termination message to the first transceiver, wherein the semi-termination message requests the first transceiver cease transmission of packets derived from the current segment; and

receive additional packets derived from another segment from the first transceiver.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to transmit the request for the first plurality of packets by transmitting a transmission control message indicating a maximum number of packets to transmit from the current segment, and wherein the first transceiver determines which packets to transmit.

3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the transmission control message comprises a sequence number indicating an order of transmission.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to initially receive an indication of a size of the data object.

5. The UE of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to compute a number of segments, a size of a last segment, and a size of a last source block from the size of the data object.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein each packet includes an encoding indicator indicative of parameters of the linear network code.

7. The UE of claim 6, wherein the encoding indicator is randomly selected by each transceiver for each packet being transmitted.

8. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

a local transceiver including transmitter and receiver components;

multiple antennas, in which a first antenna of the multiple antennas is coupled to the transmitter, and in which a second antenna of the multiple antennas is coupled to the receiver;

a display touchscreen; and

a keyboard.

9. A method for transmitting packets from a base station to a mobile communication device that is receiving data using a plurality of distinct radio protocols, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of transmission control messages from the mobile communication device, wherein the plurality of transmission control messages include a first transmission control message requesting a first quantity of packets be transmitted from a first segment of a data object and a second transmission control message requesting a second quantity of packets be transmitted from a second segment of the same data object;

transmitting at least a portion of the first quantity of packets to a first radio of the mobile communication device using a first radio protocol and at least a portion of the second quantity of packets to a second radio of the mobile communication device using a second radio protocol different from the first radio protocol simultaneously with and in parallel to the transmission of the first quantity of packets to the first radio, wherein the portion of the first quantity of packets is encoded using a fountain code and the portion of the second quantity of packets is encoded using the fountain code; and

receiving a segment completion message from the mobile communication device, wherein the segment completion message requests a stop to transmission of packets from the first segment but continuation of transmission of packets from the second segment.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving a termination message requesting an end to transmission of all packets.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmission of packets related to the data object is controlled using solely transmission control messages, segment completion messages, and termination messages.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of transmission control messages includes a sequence number indicating an order of transmission.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein each packet includes a segment index indicative of a segment from which the packet was derived.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein each packet includes an encoding indicator indicative of parameters of the fountain code.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating a plurality of pseudorandom numbers by using the encoding indicator to determine an initial seed for a pseudorandom number generator, and computing one or more encoding coefficients for a payload of each packet based on a corresponding one or more of the plurality of pseudorandom numbers.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein generating the plurality of pseudorandom numbers comprises generating the plurality of pseudorandom numbers according to the equation:

x_k+1=4x_k(1−

x_k),x_kε

(0,1)

wherein x_k+1 is a next pseudorandom number and x_k is a previous pseudorandom number, and wherein an initial seed is computed from the encoding indicator according to the equation;

17. A User equipment (UE) for receiving packets from a plurality of transceivers using a plurality of distinct radio protocols, the UE comprising:

a first radio operating according to a first radio protocol, the first radio configured to;

receive a first plurality of streams of packets from a first transceiver, wherein the first plurality of streams are derived from a data file;

a second radio operating according to a second radio protocol, the second radio configured to;

receive a second plurality of streams of packets from a second transceiver simultaneously and in parallel to receipt of the first plurality of streams, wherein each stream is derived from a unique segment of the same data file, and wherein each stream is encoded using a linear network code,

transmit a stream termination message to the second transceiver, wherein the stream termination message identifies a stream from the second plurality of streams, and

after transmitting the stream termination message, receive one or more streams from the second plurality of streams without receiving the stream identified in the stream termination message.

18. The UE of claim 17, wherein the second radio is further configured to initially transmit a plurality of transmission control messages identifying the second plurality of streams for transmission.

19. The UE of claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of transmission control messages indicates a maximum number of packets to be transmitted in a corresponding stream.

20. The UE of claim 17, wherein the second radio is configured to transmit a connection termination message requesting the second transceiver stop transmission of all packets.

21. The UE of claim 17, wherein the transmission of packets related to the data file from the first and second transceivers is controlled using solely transmission control messages, stream termination messages, and connection termination messages.

22. The UE of claim 17, wherein each packet includes a segment index indicative of a segment from which the packet was derived.

23. The UE of claim 17, wherein each packet includes an encoding indicator from which one or more encoding coefficients for the packet can be derived, and wherein the encoding indicator is randomly selected.

24. The UE of claim 17, wherein the linear network code is a random linear network code.