Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7706408?ie=ISO-8859-1
Timestamp: 2015-05-22 21:11:07
Document Index: 603813844

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 07010669', 'Application No. 07010669', 'Application No. 05250024', 'application No. 2006', 'Application No. 2006', 'Application No. 05250024', 'art 11']

Patent US7706408 - Communication apparatus, communication method, and communication system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsA physical frame is constructed, the physical frame including a medium access control super-frame payload which in turn includes a plurality of medium access control frames. With respect to the constructed physical frame, virtual carrier sense information is set in the plurality of medium access control...http://www.google.com/patents/US7706408?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7706408 - Communication apparatus, communication method, and communication systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7706408 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/527,528Publication dateApr 27, 2010Filing dateSep 27, 2006Priority dateJan 9, 2004Fee statusPaidAlso published asCN1638384A, CN1984145A, CN1984145B, CN100539588C, CN101626386A, CN101626386B, DE602005008115D1, DE602005027511D1, EP1553730A1, EP1553730B1, EP1826952A1, EP2209261A1, EP2209261B1, US7496076, US7675893, US8406214, US8472468, US20050165950, US20070064738, US20090016379, US20100046518, US20100232452, US20130259068Publication number11527528, 527528, US 7706408 B2, US 7706408B2, US-B2-7706408, US7706408 B2, US7706408B2InventorsMasahiro Takagi, Yasuyuki Nishibayashi, Yoriko UtsunomiyaOriginal AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha ToshibaExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (25), Non-Patent Citations (12), Referenced by (22), Classifications (20), Legal Events (2) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetCommunication apparatus, communication method, and communication system
US 7706408 B2Abstract
a physical frame construction device configured to construct a single physical frame containing a physical header, length information, a first check sequence, and a plurality of MAC frames, the length information representing lengths of the plurality of MAC frames, the first check sequence being for detecting an error which may occur in the length information, each of the plurality of MAC frames including a second check sequence for detecting an error which may occur in each of the plurality of MAC frames; and
a transmission device configured to transmit the physical frame to a destination communication apparatus,
wherein the physical header including a first header for a first protocol and a second header for a second protocol, the second header following the first header;
the first header includes a length field for describing first information representing a length of the plurality of MAC frames, and includes a rate field for describing second information representing a transmission rate of the plurality of MAC frames;
the first header is decodable by a first communication apparatus that supports the first protocol and a second communication apparatus that supports the second protocol; and
the second header is decodable by the second communication apparatus.
a reception device configured to receive an acknowledgement frame as a response to reception of at least one of a plurality of the MAC frames in the physical frame, after the destination communication apparatus receives the physical frame and a Short IFS (SIFS) period elapses.
a checking device configured to check whether each of the plurality of the MAC frames has been received correctly, based on the acknowledgement frame received by the reception device.
wherein sequence numbers are assigned to the MAC frames included in the physical frame, and wherein the acknowledgement frame includes an acknowledgement bit map which includes values of one and zero corresponding to an arrangement of the sequence numbers, the values each indicating whether each of the MAC frames has been received correctly or not.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the MAC frames further contains a duration field, and values of the duration fields of the MAC frames are identical.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the physical frame construction device sets the length information as zero for a MAC frame in the physical frame.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an antenna, and
wherein the transmission device transmits the physical frame through the antenna to a destination communication apparatus.
a physical frame reception device configured to receive a single physical frame containing a physical header, length information, a first check sequence, and a plurality of MAC frames, the length information representing lengths of the plurality of MAC frames, the first check sequence being for detecting an error which may occur in the length information, each of the plurality of MAC frames including a second check sequence for detecting an error which may occur in each of the plurality of MAC frames;
a generation device configured to generate an acknowledgement frame in which MAC frames of the received physical frame are specified to have been received correctly, if no error has been detected on the length information according to the first check sequence and no error has been detected on each of the MAC frames according to the second check sequence corresponding thereto; and
a transmission device configured to transmit the acknowledgement frame as a response to reception of at least one of the plurality of the MAC frames in the physical frame, after said physical frame is received and a Short IFS (SIFS) period elapses,
9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the acknowledgement frame contains a receiving state indicating whether each data frame of the MAC frames included in the physical frame received by the reception device has been received correctly.
the physical frame reception device further receives a physical frame retransmitted based on the receiving state, the physical frame including a MAC frame which was not received correctly, and
wherein the transmission device transmits, without referring to a history of past receiving states, a new acknowledgement frame which contains a receiving state indicating only whether a MAC frame included in the retransmitted physical frame has been received correctly.
wherein the transmission device transmits a new acknowledgement frame which contains an updated receiving state that is updated from a previous receiving state by a receiving state indicating whether a MAC frame included in the retransmitted physical frame has been received correctly.
12. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of the MAC frames in the physical frame include at least data frames,
the physical frame reception device further receives a physical frame retransmitted based on a receiving state, the physical frame including data frames which were not received correctly, and
wherein the construction device constructs a new acknowledgement bit map which is updated from a previous acknowledgement bit map by one and zero values each indicating whether each of the MAC frames contained in the retransmitted physical frame have been received correctly or not.
13. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of the MAC frames in the physical frame include at least data frames, and the apparatus further comprising:
a buffer configured to temporarily store, of the MAC frames contained in the received physical frame, a MAC frame which has been received correctly, so that the MAC frame can be read out in order of sequence numbers, wherein the sequence numbers are assigned to the MAC frames included in the physical frame;
a transferring device configured to read from the buffered MAC frames having sequence numbers, and transfer the MAC frames to an upper layer processing, based on a comparison between the sequence numbers of the buffered data frames and sequence numbers of MAC frames contained in a physical frame newly received; and
a deletion device configured to delete the MAC frames transferred from said buffer.
14. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein each of the MAC frames further contains a duration field, and values of the duration fields of the MAC frames are identical.
15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising a recognizing device configured to recognize whether reception or transmission is necessary from any one of the MAC frames correctly received within the physical frame, and when the recognizing device recognizes that reception or transmission is not necessary, a power saving operation is started until end of duration which is set as a value in the duration field of the correctly received MAC frame.
16. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a physical frame construction device configured to construct another physical frame containing length information and a plurality of MAC frames, the length information of the another physical frame representing lengths of the MAC frames and including a first check sequence, and each of the MAC frames of the another physical frame including a second check sequence,
the plurality of MAC frames within the another physical frame further contains an acknowledgement frame and a plurality of data frames; and
the transmission device transmits the another physical frame without new procedures for contending for a transmission privilege.
17. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising an antenna, and
wherein the transmission device transmits the acknowledgement frame through the antenna. Description
This is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 11/029,544, filed Jan. 6. 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,496,076 which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. This application is also based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-004847, filed Jan. 9, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The existing communication apparatus 4, which cannot recognize a signal field and subsequent of a second type PHY frame, advances processing as if it were a first type. PHY frame. Then, this communication apparatus calculates an FCS and detects an error at the end of the frame. Alternatively, the communication apparatus detects an error at the end of the frame, since it recognize that there occurs a PHY fame of such type which cannot be interpreted. In these cases, the communication apparatus 4 cannot recognize correctly a virtual carrier sense state of the MAC layer to be set by reception of the PHY frame, and thus, enters an error recovery state. Namely, this communication apparatus enters a state of waiting for an EIFS duration which is the longest IFS. In this waiting state, the communication apparatus 4 receives a partial ACK originated from the receiving communication apparatus 2 before terminating the EIFS. As described above, since a partial ACK is transmitted at a mandatory rate conforming to the IEEE 802.11a which is the first type physical layer protocol, the existing communication apparatus 4 can interpret this ACK. If the partial ACK is correctly received, carrier sensing of the MAC layer is correctly carried out. Thus, the waiting state caused by the EIFS is cancelled, and no problem occurs. Therefore, the communication apparatus according to embodiments of the present invention and the existing (legacy) communication apparatus can coexist.
Although a plurality of MAC frames are included in a single MAC super-frame, a maximum number of MAC frames which can be stored is limited. In the present embodiment, up to eight MAC frames can be included. The receiving communication apparatus needs to be able to buffer the above maximum number of MAC frames. The receiving communication apparatus passes a MAC frame, in the form that a sequence is kept, to the upper layer of the MAC layer. In this manner, the correctly received MAC frame needs to be stored in a buffer until it has been determined that a MAC frame having a sequence number preceding that of the correctly received MAC frame is correctly received by retransmission or that a MAC frame having a sequence number preceding that of the correctly received MAC frame is not to be retransmitted any more (e.g. by timeout). This buffer has a space to store MAC frames from a MAC frame with the lowest sequence number which is yet to be received correctly to a MAC frame with a sequence number which corresponds to the lowest sequence number +7.
In FIG. 11, the range of these sequence numbers at each time point is expressed as a start point and an end point by windows W1 to W5, respectively. The MAC frame to be included in the MAC super-frame and transmitted by the transmitting communication apparatus is limited to MAC frames required to be transmitted because they are not acknowledged and need to be retransmitted in this window range as well as MAC frames newly transmitted in this window range. In FIG. 11, in the case where “LenX” is written in each of TX1 to TX5, a MAC frame of sequence number X is transmitted by transmission of the corresponding MAC super-frame. In the case where “0” is written, the MAC frame of the corresponding sequence number is not transmitted. These values correspond to data length fields 1 to 8 of the MAC frames in the MAC super-frame header 202 shown in FIG. 2. In the case where “o” is entered in each of RX1 to RX5, this indicates that the MAC frame of the corresponding sequence number has already been correctly received. In the case where “x” is entered in each of RX1 to RX5, this indicates that the MAC frame of the corresponding sequence number has never been correctly received until this time point has been reached. These “o” and “x” correspond to true and false values, and correspond to values of a partial ACK bit map (Partial ACK Bitmap) 91 in the partial ACK frame shown in FIG. 9.
In FIG. 17, a value obtained when it is assumed that a partial ACK is transmitted in accordance with the first type PHY frame is set as duration values of MAC frame 1 and MAC frame 2. In actuality, a case in which a partial ACK (corresponding to MAC frame 3) has been transmitted in accordance with the second type frame is indicated. Although duration 1 is indicated as a value which terminates before completion of partial ACK transmission, the communication apparatus 3 and communication apparatus 4 each detect a PHY busy state in a duration of NAV set in accordance with duration 1. While the PHY busy state of the communication apparatus 3 continues, NAV of the communication apparatus 3 is updated by a value of duration 2 included in the partial ACK (MAC frame 3) and MAC frame 4. Thus, the state of carrier sensing of the communication apparatus 3 does not cause a problem for a virtual medium occupation duration of the communication. With respect to the communication apparatus 4 as well, after the receiving of the second type. PHY frame including the partial ACK has completed, the EIFS duration is restarted. Therefore, no problem occurs with the carrier sense state of the communication apparatus 4. Accordingly, even if a duration value is calculated assuming that a partial ACK is transmitted in the first type PHY frame, it is found that no problem occurs with respective communication apparatuses on the communication. Therefore, with such a configuration according to the present embodiment, the partial ACK can be efficiently transmitted while one communication apparatus coexists with another communication apparatus.
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