Patent ID: 7168022

Claim:
A transmission control method for use in a communication network, comprising: generating first probability distribution data showing incidence probabilities of data block round trip times; transmitting sequentially a plurality of data blocks from a sender device to a receiver device; retransmitting, from said sender device, a data block, from among said plurality of data blocks, for which no acknowledgement is received and initializing a time keeping means for measuring an elapsed time; obtaining, upon receiving an acknowledgement signal from said receiver device, said elapsed time measured by said time keeping means; and estimating whether said acknowledgement signal acknowledges receipt of one of said plurality of data blocks on the basis of a value of said obtained elapsed time and said first probability distribution, wherein said transmitting step includes further transmitting a data block subsequent to said transmitted plurality of data blocks when it is estimated that in said estimating step that said acknowledgement signal acknowledges reception of one of said plurality of data blocks.