Patent ID: 6128283
Filing Date: 2000-10-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A data transmission system, comprising:a sender unit including:an input for receiving user data;a sender unit coupled to said input, said sender unit being operative for arranging the user data into a plurality of cells forming a group, each cell including a sequence identifier portion and a user data portion, the sequence identifier portion including a sequence identification data element defining an order of transmission of the cell with relation to other cells of the group, each cell in the group having an acknowledgement request data portion containing an acknowledgement request data element capable of acquiring at least two possible states namely:a first state indicating that acknowledgment of the cell is desired;a second state indicating that acknowledgement of the cell is not desired;at least one cell of the group including an acknowledgement request data element that is in the second state and at least another cell of the group including an acknowledgement request data element that is in the first state;a receiver unit capable of being connected through a data transmission pathway to said sender unit, said receiver unit including:an input for receiving cells transmitted from said sender unit through the data transmission pathway;a sequence controller unit operative for observing a sequence identification data element in a cell received by said receiver unit and determining a sequence of the cell with relation to cells previously received by said receiver unit;an acknowledgement message generator unit operative for issuing an acknowledgement message to said sender unit when an acknowledgement request data element in the first state is present in a given cell received by said receiver unit, said acknowledgement message generator unit being in operative relationship with said sequence controller unit, said acknowledgement message generator unit being precluded from issuing an acknowledgement message when said sequence controller unit determines that the given cell triggers an out of sequence error.