System and method for transmitting information over multiple channels

• US 7,110,421 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2001
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Feinberg, Paul H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Philpott, Justin M.
• Application Number:
  US09/996,105
• Publication Number:
  US 20030099256A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,756 Days
• Field of Search: 370/345, 370/437, 370/442, 370/458, 370/464, 370/473, 370/498
• US Class Current: 370/473
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system of transmitting packets of information over multiple channels such that the packets are sent simultaneously and serially across and down the channels.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a plurality of packets of information over a multi-channel medium comprising:

allocating each packet to a channel of the medium;

during a first time period, transmitting each packet on its allocated channel;

re-allocating each packet to a channel of the medium such that the packet is not allocated to a channel it was allocated to during the first time period;

during a second time period after the first time period, transmitting each packet on its re-allocated channel;

re-allocating each packet to a channel of the medium such that the packet is not allocated to a channel it was allocated to during the first or second time period;

during a third time period after the second time period, transmitting each packet on its allocated channel;

selecting a number of the channels of the medium; and

repeating the steps of re-allocating and transmitting for additional time periods until every packet has been transmitted at least once on every one of the selected number of channels.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting during a time period comprises transmitting all of the packets simultaneously.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting during a time period comprises starting transmission of some packets before other packets.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the channels is unable to complete transmission of the packet during the time period.

5. A method of transmitting a plurality of messages over a medium comprising:

associating portions of a first message with selected channels of the medium such that each portion is associated with a different channel;

for each selected channel which is available for transmission and during a first time period, transmitting the first message portions on their associated channels;

associating portions of a second message with the channels of the medium such that each portion is associated with a different channel;

for each selected channel which is available for transmission and during a second time period, transmitting the second message portions on their associated channels;

re-associating the first message portions with selected channels of the medium such that each portion is associated with a channel different from both the other portions and the channel with which it was associated during the first time period;

for each selected channel which is available for transmission and during a third time period, transmitting the second message portions on their reassociated channels;

reassociating the second message portions with selected channels of the medium such that each portion is associated with a channel different from both the other portions and the channel with which it was associated during the second time period; and

for each selected channel which is available for transmission and during a fourth time period, transmitting the second message portions on their reassociated channels.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the second time period is after the first time period, the third time period is after the second time period and the fourth time period is after the third time period.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the messages comprises content.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the selected channels comprise all of the channels of the medium.