System and method prioritizing message packets for transmission

• US 6,816,458 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2000
• Issued: 11/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Harris Global Communications, Inc. (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kroon, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US09/661,404
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230, 370/231, 370/235, 370/236, 370/349, 370/352, 370/395.1, 370/395.4, 370/395.42, 370/395.5, 370/395.52, 370/412, 370/428, 370/429, 370/474, 370/389, 370/338, 709/230, 709/232, 709/238, 709/240, 709/247
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/28 in relation to timing considerations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/564 Attaching a deadline to packets, e.g. earliest due date first
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• 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

Abstract

A system and method of increasing message throughput in a communications system utilizing priority management, conglomeration and compression, TCP retransmission filtering and pull transmission. The priority manages ranks the messages in a message queue as a function of the priority and time to live of each message. The conglomerator conglomerates messages into assemblies destined for the same destination radio. The TCP filter prevents the retransmission of successfully received messages. The messages are transmitted as a function of the availability of the destination radio to receive.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the sequence of transmission of a plurality of message packets in a plural station radio network wherein each radio includes a message queue and a radio queue, comprising the steps of:

maintaining a message queue of message packets in ranked order of desired transmission at a source radio, each packet addressed to a destination radio;

providing a radio queue of destination radios associated with the message packets in the message queue ranked as a function of the ranking of the messages in the message queue;

monitoring all radios in the radio network to determine the availability of each radio to receive a transmission;

selecting the highest ranked available destination radio from the radio queue;

selecting the message packets in the message queue corresponding to the selected destination radio; and

transmitting the selected messages to the selected destination radio wherein the step of maintaining a message queue comprises the steps of;

a) assigning a time stamp, time to live and a priority to each message packet in the message queue;

b) determining the urgency of each message packet as a function of the time stamp, time to live and priority associated with each message packet;

c) ordering the message packets in the message queue as a function of the urgency of the message packets; and

d) following transmission of a message packet in the message queue, updating the order of the message packets remaining in the message queue as a function of the urgency of each of the message packets.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assigning includes assigning a higher priority to a voice packet than to a data packet and assigning a shorter time to live to a voice packet than a data packet to thereby provide a voice packet with a higher urgency than a data packet.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting includes the step of:

conglomerating the selected message packets destined for the selected destination radio into a conglomerated assembly;

transmitting the conglomerated assembly over the radio network to the selected destination radio.

4. A method for controlling the sequence of transmission of a plurality of message packets addressed to destination radios in a radio network wherein each radio includes a message queue containing message packets for transmission to the addressed destination radios and a radio queue containing the destination radios corresponding to the messages in the message queue, comprising the steps of:

assigning a time stamp, time to live and a priority to each message packet in the message queue;

determining the urgency of each message packet as a function of the time stamp, time to live and priority associated with each message packet;

ordering the message packets in the message queue as a function of the urgency of the message packets;

ordering the destination radios in the radio queue as a function of the order of message packets in the message queue;

monitoring the availability of each destination radio in the radio queue;

selecting the highest ordered available destination radio from the radio queue;

transmitting the message packets in the message queue addressed to the selected destination radio;

updating the order of the message packets remaining in the message queue as a function of the urgency of each of the message packets;

updating the order of the destination radios remaining in the radio queue as a function of the order of the messages in the message queue,

to thereby transmit all message packets within their respective time to live despite that a higher priority message may remain in the message queue at the time of transmission.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of assigning includes assigning a higher priority to a voice packet than to a data packet and assigning a shorter time to live to a voice packet than a data packet to thereby provide a voice packet with a higher urgency than a data packet.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of transmitting includes the step of:

conglomerating the selected message packets destined for the selected destination radio into a conglomerated assembly;

transmitting the conglomerated assembly over the radio network to the selected destination radio.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of conglomerating includes the step of compressing the conglomerated assembly.

8. A system for controlling the sequence of transmission of a plurality of message packets between a source radio and destination radio in a plural station radio network wherein each message packet is addressed to a destination radio, comprising:

a message queue containing message packets ranked in order for desired transmission;

a radio queue containing destination radios associated with the message packets in the message ranked in order as a function of the message packets in the message queue;

means for selecting a destination radio from the radio queue as a function of the availability of the destination radios in the radio queue; and

means for transmitting the message packets addressed to the selected destination radio.

9. The system of claim 8 where the means for transmitting includes means for conglomerating plural message packets destined for the selected destination radio into a conglomerated assembly, and

means for transmitting the conglomerated assembly over the radio network to the selected destination radio.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising means for receiving and reformatting the conglomerated assembly at the destination radio into individual message packets for delivery to their respective destination stations.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for conglomerating includes means for compressing the conglomerated assembly.