Title of Invention	A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A DATA UNIT ORIENTED COMMUNICATION AND A COMMUNICATION DEVICE
Abstract	A device and a method are proposed in which the sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units and the receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender. The data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure that involves one or more adaptive parameters. After a given data unit is sent, the sender performs a data loss detection routine, and if a triggering event occurs, a corresponding response procedure is conducted, where this response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters. Preferably, there is a first and a second mode, where the first mode is associated with the actual loss of a data unit, so that this first mode comprises the conventional data loss procedures, and where the second mode is associated with the recognition that an excessive delay has taken place and not a loss of a unit.

Title of Invention

A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A DATA UNIT ORIENTED COMMUNICATION AND A COMMUNICATION DEVICE

Abstract

A device and a method are proposed in which the sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units and the receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender. The data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure that involves one or more adaptive parameters. After a given data unit is sent, the sender performs a data loss detection routine, and if a triggering event occurs, a corresponding response procedure is conducted, where this response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters. Preferably, there is a first and a second mode, where the first mode is associated with the actual loss of a data unit, so that this first mode comprises the conventional data loss procedures, and where the second mode is associated with the recognition that an excessive delay has taken place and not a loss of a unit.

Full Text	FORM 2 THE PATENTS ACT 1970 [39 OF 1970] COMPLETE SPECIFICATION [See Section 10] ""COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND METHOD" A METHOD AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A DATA UNIT ORIENTED COMMUNICATION A communication DEVICE TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON [PUBL], a Swedish company, of S-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden The following specification particularly describes and ascertain- the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed :- Communication device and method The present invention relates to a communication device and method, where a data unit oriented communication between a sender and a receiver is performed, said sender and receiver operating in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol. Data unit oriented communication is well-known. In data unit oriented communication an amount of data is divided into one or more data units, where the structure of the data units is defined by a communication protocol to which the sender and receiver in the communication adhere. The protocol also defines how specific information is to be coded, and how the sender and/or receiver may react to specific information. Data unit oriented communication is also known as packet exchange communication. It should be noted that the data units used in connection with specific protocols have different names, such as packets, frames, segments etc. For the purpose of the present description, the term "data unit" shall generically refer to all types of units used in a data unit oriented communication. A feature that many communication protocols use for increasing reliability is that of acknowledging received data. More specifically. a sender or sending peer of the given protocol sends out data units, and the receiver or receiving peer of the given protocol acknowledges the correct receipt by returning appropriate acknowledgment data units. In this way, the sending peer is informed that the data units that were sent were also correctly received, and can accordingly adjust the flow control of the further data units to be sent. An example of a protocol that uses acknowledgment data units is the so-called transmission control protocol (TCP), which is a part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The transmission control protocol and the TCP/IP protocol suite are e.g. well described in "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 - The Protocols" by W. Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley. 1994. In order to cope with the fact that data units or acknowledgment data units may be lost, a time-out feature is provided in many protocols. Such a time-out feature means that a time-out period is set when data is sent, and if the specific data has not been acknowledged by the time the time-out period expires, a time-out response procedure is started. In TCP, the time-out response consists in retransmitting the data that was not acknowledged, and resetting one or more flow control parameters. As an example, TCP uses a window-based flow control. TCP is a byte oriented protocol that divides a given number of bytes to be sent into so-called segments, and a record of the sent data is kept in terms of bytes, i.e. up to which byte the data was sent, and a record of the received data is also kept in terms of bytes, i.e. up to which byte the data was received. The simplest way of controlling the flow of segments in connection with acknowledgment messages would be to send a segment and not send the next segment until the segment last sent was acknowledged. Such a method of flow control would however not be very efficient. As already mentioned, TCP uses window-based flow control, which is also referred to a? flow control according to sliding windows. This concept is also well described in the above mentioned book by W. Richard Stevens. Fig. 2 illustrates the concept of sliding windows. As can be seen, an amount of 8.192 bytes is to be sent in the example, where this amount is divided into 8 segments. The sending of segments is controlled in accordance with the send window, where the left end of the send window is defined by the data in the segments that have been sent and already acknowledged. In the example of Fig. 2 this is the data up to 2.048 bytes, i.e. the segments 1 and 2. The adjustment of the length of the send window, and thereby the right end of the window is a matter of the control procedure, which need not be explained in detail here. The send window defines the amount of data which may have its corresponding acknowledgment outstanding. In the example of Fig. 2, the data up to 4 096 bytes, i.e. segments 3 and 4 have been sent and not yet acknowledged, and the difference between such sent and not acknowledged segments and the right end of the send window defines the usable window, i.e. the data that may still be sent without having received any further acknowledgments. As a consequence, in the example of Fig. 2 segments 5 and 6 may still be sent, but segments 7 and 8 can only be sent if the window moves to the right, which happens if further segments are acknowledged such that the left end moves to the right and/or if the length of the send window increases. Furthermore, it should be noted that TCP provides for cumulative acknowledgment, i.e. there is not a one-to-one correspondence between segments and acknowledgments for segments, because one acknowledgment message may cover a plurality of segments. As an example, the receiving peer for the data amount shown in Fig. 2 could send an acknowledgment of bytes up to 4.096. such that this acknowledgment message would cover both segments 3 and 4. The send window used by the sending peer will typically be determined by the so-called offered or advertised window, which is a data length provided to the sending peer by the receiving peer. In this way, the receiving peer can influence how many segments the sending peer will send at a time, and typically the advertised window will be calculated on the basis of the receiving peer"s receive buffer. Also, the advertised window is a dynamic parameter that may be changed with every acknowledgment sent by the receiving peer. Beyond the advertised window, it is also known to define the so-called congestion window, which is used in connection with several congestion control routines such as slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and fast recovery, again see e.g. the above mentioned book by W. Richard Stevens. The congestion window is a record that the sending peer keeps, and it is intended to take into account the congestion along the connection between the sending peer and receiving peer. As a typical control mechanism, the send window will be defined as the smaller of the advertised window and congestion window. While the advertised window is a flow control imposed by the receiving peer, the congestion window is a flow control imposed by the sending peer, as a mechanism for taking congestion into account. In a general sense, the congestion window is an example of an adaptive flow control parameter. In TCP the above mentioned time-out response consists in resetting the congestion window to one segment and then consequently only sending one segment, namely retransmitting the segment that was not acknowledged and thereby caused the time-out. The sending peer then waits for the acknowledgment of said retransmitted segment. Another example of an adaptive flow control parameter is the time out period itself, which e.g. in TCP is referred to as RTO (Retransmission Time Out). The RTO is doubled as a response to a time out. As already mentioned, the time-out feature is a data loss detection mechanism. Other data loss detection mechanisms exist. Another example is the retransmission of data units in TCP in response to the receipt of duplicate acknowledgments. This mechanism will be briefly explained in the following. As already mentioned (see e.g. Fig. 2). a data amount to be sent is divided into a sequence. Conventional implementations of TCP are arranged such that if the receiving peer has received and acknowledged a certain data amount up to a given byte (a certain number of consecutive segments) , it expects the data that is next in the sequence. For example, if segments up to segment 4 have been received, then segment 4 is acknowledged and the receiving peer expects to receive segment 5. If it then receives a further data unit that is different from segment 5 (e.g. segments 6, 7 and 8). it continues to acknowledge segment 4 for each data unit it receives. As a consequence, the sending peer receives duplicate acknowledgments. Commonly, TCP is implemented in such a way that the sending peer will count the number of duplicate acknowledgments, and if a certain threshold value is reached (e.gr 3). then the data unit next in the sequence to the data unit for which duplicate acknowledgments were received is retransmitted. It is the object of the present invention to improve the communication in a system using a communications protocol that specifies the acknowledgment of sent data and specifies a data loss detection function, such as a time-out function or a duplicate acknowledgment response function. This object is solved by the novel method and the novel device. The subject method relates to a method for controlling a data unit oriented communication between a sender and a receiver operating in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where said sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol, said receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender, said data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, and said flow control procedure comprises a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detect on mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) is conducted, which comprises the retransmission (S3) of a given data unit, characterized in that said response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes (S6, S7) for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters, and, comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit. In the subject communication device it relates to a communication device for data unit oriented communication in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where said communication divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol and the receiver in said communication acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgements data units to the sender, said communication device comprising: a means such that when said communication device acts as a sender, it is arranged to send data units in accordance with a flow control procedure that is conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, said flow control procedure comprising a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detection mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure is conducted, which comprises the retransmission of a given data unit, wherein said communication device is arranged such that said response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters and comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit. In accordance with the present invention, a sender in a communication will conduct a response procedure in response to an event that triggers a data loss detection mechanism, where the response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting the adaptive parameters used in flow control. In this way the method and device of the present invention are highly flexible in their management of triggering events, and can especially be implemented in such a way that the response procedure may be chosen depending on various potential causes of the triggering event, such that the correct responsive measures to a given situation may be invoked, and thereby measures can be avoided that might actually aggravate situations that may occur after a data loss detection mechanism was triggered. The data loss detection mechanism is a mechanism that is capable of detecting a data loss. Examples are a time-out mechanism or a duplicate acknowledgment mechanism. Naturally, the invention may be applied to any suitable data loss detection mechanism. According to the present invention, a response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting the adaptive parameters used in flow control. As an example, which constitutes a preferred embodiment, there are two modes, which are respectively associated with different causes of a time-out or a predetermined number of duplicate acknowledgments (e.g. the above mentioned 3) . More specifically, a first mode is associated with the loss of a data unit, and the second mode is associated with an excessive delay along the connection. Due to the use of two different modes, it is possible to adapt the parameters a.s is appropriate for the cause of the time¬out or duplicate acknowledgments. Accordingly, the flow control procedure will contain one or more evaluation and judgment steps, in which the triggering event is qualified, e.g. a categorization is conducted as to what caused the event. Then, depending on the result of this characterization, an appropriate response procedure may be enabled. In the context of the above example, if it is determined that the time-out or duplicate acknowledgments are caused by the loss of a data unit, then the known response procedure to the loss of data units may be run, as it is e.g. known from conventional TCP, which assumes that any time-out or the receipt of several duplicate acknowledgments is caused by the loss of a data unit. In accordance with the present embodiment, there is however a second mode, and if it is determined that the time-out or duplicate acknowledgments are caused by an excessive delay along the connection, then an excessive delay response procedure is run, which will typically be different from the response procedure to the loss of a data unit. More specifically, as will also be explained in more detail in the following, the judgment that data units have been lost will be answered by reducing the transmission rate to thereby avoid further congestion. On the other hand, if there is excessive delay along the connection, then the measures taken in response to a supposed loss of data units would not be helpful, much rather they might actually aggravate the problem causing the excessive delay. Consequently, the response procedure to excessive delay will typically be different, and e.g. comprise keeping the transmission rate at the previous level, but on the other hand increasing the time-out period, such that further unnecessary retransmissions are avoided. Naturally, the present invention may be implemented as providing an arbitrary number of modes or response procedures to various causes of triggering events. The number of modes and the specific measures taken in each mode naturally depend on the specific situation, i.e. the chosen protocol, the given communication situation, etc. An important aspect of the present invention is that although the data loss detection mechanism is capable of detecting data loss, the reaction to the triggering of the data loss detection mechanism does not assume that a data loss has necessarily occured. much rather a flexible response is possible, which may take into account various causes of the triggering event. Further aspects and advantages of the present invention shall be better understood from the following detailed description, which makes reference to the figures, in which: Fig. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the control procedure according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram for describing the concept of window-based flow control; Fig. 3 is a graph for explaining the advantages of the present invention; and Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram for illustrating a situation in which an excessive delay may be caused in a connection between two host computers. Although the following description will be generally directed cowards any communications protocol that makes use of data acknowledgment and also provides a time-out feature, examples will often be given that relate to the transmission control protocol TCP known from the TCP/IP protocol suite. The application of the present invention to this protocol is a preferred embodiment- In order to avoid any unnecessary repetition, the disclosure in the taking TCP as a protocol example, this may consist in returning the congestion window to the value stored in step S2 and on the other hand adapting the time-out period to the delay. In other words, the round trip time RTT associated with the original transmission and the acknowledgment of the original transmission can be used as a basis for adapting the time-out period. Thereby, further unnecessary retransmissions and time-outs or duplicate acknowledgments due to excessive delay can be avoided. Preferably, the congestion window is not simply reset to the previous value, but much rather is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place, i.e. had the data loss detection mechanism not been triggered. As can be seen, the example of Fig. 1 shows a first mode consisting of steps S2, S3, S4, S5 and S7, as well as a second mode consisting of steps S2. S3, S4, S5 and S6. In order to better explain the present invention, reference will now be made to Fig. 3, which shows an example of a flow control procedure conducted in connection with conventional TCP. The graph shows the amount of data in bytes transported over time. As can be seen, the first two segments are sent at time t=4s. Then, due to the interaction of receiving acknowledgment data units and the adjustment of adaptive parameters not shown, segments are sent. For the purpose of explanation, it should be noted that the diamond shaped symbols refer to segments, and the square symbols to acknowledgment data units. The diamond symbols indicate the first byte of the segment, whereas the squares indicate the lowest unacknowledged byte. The acknowledgment data units indicated at a certain segment level always acknowledge the sent segments up to that segment level. In other words. the acknowledgment at a segment level of 6.4 00 bytes (t=12s) acknowledges the segments below 6.400 byte, but not including byte 6.400. Quite to the contrary, as explicitly indicated in the graph, the segment at 6.400 byte (t=10s) is a data unit or packet that causes a time-out. As a consequence, a retransmission is conducted of said data t the 6.400 byte level. Now, if it is assumed that the time-out shown in Fig. 3 was caused by an excessive delay and not by the shown first packet being lost, then the retransmission has the following negative consequences. For one thing, it leads to a decreased throughput performance, as the same data has to traverse the connection or connecting path twice, which wastes bandwidths that could have otherwise been used for useful data. This negative, consequence will occur in any protocol that falsely responds to a time-out by retransmitting the data unit. If, as shown in Fig. 3, the TCP protocol is used, then the reaction of the sending peer to such a time-out not caused by data unit loss is particularly disadvantageous: the sender will retransmit all outstanding packets and above that reduce its transmission rate. This is explicitly shown in Fig. 3. It may be noted that the above described time-out not caused by data unit loss is also referred to as a spurious time-out. As also shown in Fig. 3. in conventional TCP the sender misinterprets all acknowledgments associated with retransmitted data units as acknowledging the retransmission, eventhough these acknowledgments (ACKs) in fact are delayed acknowledgments of Che original transmissions. What Fig. 3 does not show, is that additionally the duplicate data units sent by the sending peer will trigger duplicate acknowledgments at the receiving peer, which will lead to yet another reduction in the transmission rate at the conventional TCP sender, namely the congestion window is set to one half of its earlier value. The occurrence of excessive delay that goes beyond what the TCP time-out period can account for. may especially appear in wireless networks or such protocol connections of which at least a part runs over a wireless link. The inventors of the present application realized that spurious time-outs can happen often enough in such networks, so that serious performance degradation results. Examples of this will now briefly be mentioned. Fig. 4 shows a situation, where two host computers act as peers of the TCP (indicated by the long arrows from host to host at the bottom and top of the figure). The lower protocol layers comprise a radio link over a wireless access network to the internet- The connection between the internet and the host on the right is not shown. An example of a protocol for the radio link is the so-called radio link control protocol RLC. As indicated in Fig. 4, both the transport layer protocol (e.g. TCP) and the link layer protocol (e.g. RLC) have an ARQ (Automatic Retransmission reQuest) function. This means that these protocols both implement time-out and retransmission functions. In the situation of Fig. 4, due to the ARQ being used at the link layer, a race condition is generated between the link layer and the transport layer: while the link layer retransmits data, the transport retransmission timer might expire, leading to a spurious time-out. The retransmissions at the link layer can be due e.g. to transmission errors or to data loss because of handovers. It may also be noted that the transmission delay over the wireless network is often a considerable fraction of the end-to-end delay between the sending and receiving peer of the transport layer protocol. If in this case the bandwidth available to the transport layer connection in the wireless network drops considerably over a short period of time, the resulting increase in the end-to-end delay between the transport layer sender and receiver might lead to spurious time-outs. Examples of bandwidth drops include mobile hosts executing a handover into a cell which provides less bandwidth than the old cell As already indicated previously, when employing the present invention, the problem described in connection " with Fig. 3 can be avoided. More specifically, when applying the method described in connection with Fig. 1 to the problem in Fig. 3. then the sending peer is capable of distinguishing between acknowledgment data units to the original transmission of a data unit and acknowledgment data units to the retransmission of a data unit. From this information, the sender can decide if a spurious time-out has occurred, or if there indeed has been a loss of a data unit. The sender can then react accordingly. More specifically, in the example of Fig. 3. the sender using the invention will be able to identify the acknowledgment data unit received after having retransmitted the shown first packet as being an acknowledgment for the original transmission (t=10s) and not for the retransmission sender determines that this acknowledgment belongs to the original transmission and not the retransmission. This fraction may be set to a fixed value, or may itself be an adaptive parameter. Naturally, it is not necessary that the comparison value multiplied with said fraction is the shortest measured RTT, much rather it is also possible that the sender keeps an average RTT value. In this sense, the comparison value to be multiplied by said fraction is generally a function of one or more RTT values measured in the course of the connection (during the session). According to another preferred embodiment for implementing step S5, the sender adds a mark to data units that it sends, where said mark is defined in such a way that it allows to distinguish between an original transmission and a retransmission. Then, the receiver can accordingly mark acknowledgment data units, such that the sender is capable of identifying if an acknowledgment refers to the original transmission or the retransmission. This marking of data units can be done in any desired way. For example, it would in theory be possible to simply designate a single bit in the data units, where a value of 0 would indicate original transmission and a value of 1 a retransmission, or vice versa. In a general sense, a bit string can be chosen that may also convey some more information. However, in connection with, protocols that provide for such an option, it is preferred to use the time stamp option. This option is e.g. well known for TCP. see the above mentioned book by W. R. Stevens. In other words, it is preferred to include a time stamp in sent data units, which indicates when the data unit was sent. The receiver can then simply include the same time stamp in the acknowledgment data unit, so that the sender has a unique way of identifying the data units to which the acknowledgment refers. Although the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments, these do not restrict the scope, and are only intended to convey a 5 better understanding of the invention. Much rather, the scope of the invention is determined by the appended claims - WE CLAIM: 1. A method for controlling a data unit oriented communication between a sender and a receiver operating in accordance with a i predetermined communication protocol, where said sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol, said receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender, said data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, and said flow control procedure comprises a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detect on mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) is conducted, which comprises the retransmission (S3) of a given data unit, characterized in that said response procedure (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes (S6, S7) for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters, and, comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a time out mechanism, such that after a given data unit is sent, said sender monitors a time out period and if no acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is received before said time out period expires, said time out mechanism is triggered. 3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism, such that said sender monitors the received acknowledgments, and if a data unit is acknowledged a predetermined number of times, said duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism is triggered. 4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said time out period is one of said adaptive parameters. 5. A method as claimed in one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said flow control procedure is window based, and one or more flow control windows are among said adaptive parameters. 6. A method as claimed in one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said at least two modes consist of a first arid a second mode, said first mode being associated with the judgment that the triggering event was caused by the loss of said, given data unit, and said second mode being associated with the judgment that said given data unit or the acknowledgment data unit for said given data unit has been excessively delayed. 7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said sender marks data units being sent such that an original transmission may be distinguished from a retransmission, and said receiver correspondingly marks the acknowledgment data units, such that the acknowledgment of an originally sent data unit may be distinguished from the acknowledgment of the retransmission of said data unit. 8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the sender marks data units by including a time stamp in each sent data unit, said time stamp indicating the time said data unit was sent, and the receiver marks the acknowledgment data unit for a received data unit by including the time stamp contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit. 9. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the sender marks data units by including a bit string in each sent data unit, said bit string having at least two different values for distinguishing between an original transmission and a retransmission, and the receiver marks the acknowledgment data unit for a received data unit by including the bit string contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit. 10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said bit string consists of a single bit. 11. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said bit string consists of a plurality of bits, such that said bit string is capable of distinguishing between different retransmissions. 12. A method as claimed in one of claims 9 to 11, wherein said first mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the retransmission of said given data unit, and said second mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the original transmission of said given data unit. 13. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the sender measures the round trip time associated with the connection for sending of said amount of data, the time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit is determined and compared to a value derived from one or more of said round trip time measurements, and said first or second mode is chosen on the basis of the result of said comparison. 14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said value derived from said round trip time measurements is the shortest round trip time for the connection, and the second mode is chosen if said time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is smaller than a predetermined fraction of said smallest round trip time. 15. A method as claimed in one of claims 6 to 14, wherein the second mode comprises adapting the time out period on the basis of the time that elapsed between the original transmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit. 16. A method as claimed in one of claims 6 to 15, wherein the flow control procedure is window based and a congestion window is used, where the value of said congestion window at the time of said triggering event is stored after said triggering event occurred and subsequently said value of the congestion window is reset to a predetermined value, and if said second mode is chosen after having received the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit, said value of said congestion window is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place. 17. A communication device for data unit oriented communication in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where said communication divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol and the receiver in said communication acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgements data units to the sender, said communication device comprising: a means such that when said communication device acts as a sender, it is arranged to send data units in accordance with a flow control procedure that is conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, said flow control procedure comprising a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detection mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure is conducted, which comprises the retransmission of a given data unit, wherein said communication device is arranged such that said response procedure (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprisesat least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters and comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit. ,18. A device as claimed in claim 17, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a time out mechanism, such that after a given data unit is sent, said sender is arranged to monitor a time out period and if no acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is received before said time out period expires, said time out mechanism is triggered. 19. A device as claimed in claim 17, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism, such that said sender is arranged to monitor the received acknowledgments, and if a data unit is acknowledged a predetermined number of times, said duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism is triggered. 20. A device as claimed in claim 18, wherein said time out period is one of said adaptive parameters. 21. A device as claimed in one of claims 17 to 20, wherein said flow control procedure is window based, and one or more flow control windows are among said adaptive parameters. 22. A device as claimed in one of claims 17 to 21, wherein said at least two modes consist of a first and a second mode, said first mode being associated with the judgment that the triggering event was caused by the loss of said given data unit, and said second mode being associated with the judgement that said given data unit or the acknowledgement data unit for said given data unit has been excessively delayed. 23. A device as claimed in claim 22, wherein said device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units being sent such that an original transmission may be distinguished from a retransmission, and said device when acting as a receiver is arranged to correspondingly mark the acknowledgement data units, such that the acknowledgement of an originally sent data unit may be distinguished from the acknowledgement of the retransmission of said data unit. 24. A device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units by including a time stamp in each sent data unit, said time stamp indicating the time said data unit was sent, and the device when acting as a receiver is arranged to mark the acknowledgement data unit for a received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit. 25. A device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units by including a bit string in each sent data unit, said bit string having at least two different values for distinguishing between an original transmission and a retransmission, and the device when acting as a receiver is arranged to mark the acknowledgement data unit for a received data unit by including the bit string contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgement data unit for said received data unit. 26. A device as claimed in claim 24 or 25, being arranged such that said first mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the retransmission of said given data unit, and said second mode is chosen if the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the original transmission of said given data unit. 27. A device as claimed in claim 22, wherein the device when acting as a sender is arranged to measure the round trip time associated with the connection for sending of said amount of data, to determine the time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit and to compare to a value derived from one or more of said round trip time measurements, and to choose said first or second mode on the basis of the result of said comparison. 28. A device as claimed in claim 27, wherein said value derived from said round trip time measurements is the shortest round trip time for the connection, and the device is arranged to choose said second mode if said time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is smaller than a predetermined fraction of said smallest round trip time. 29. A device as claimed in one of claims 22 to 28, wherein the second mode comprises adapting the time out period on the basis of the time that elapsed between the original transmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit. 30. A device as claimed in one of claims 22 to 29, wherein, the flow control procedure is window based and a congestion window is used, where the value of said congestion window at the time of said triggering event is stored after said triggering event occurred and subsequently said value of the congestion window is reset to a predetermined value, and if said second mode is chosen after having received the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit, said value of said congestion window is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place. Dated this June 15, 2001. (RANJANA MEHTA DUTT) OF REMFRY AND SAGAR ATTORNEY FOR THE APPLICANTS

Full Text

FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT 1970
[39 OF 1970]
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[See Section 10]
""COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND METHOD"
A METHOD AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE
A METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A DATA UNIT ORIENTED
COMMUNICATION A communication DEVICE

TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON [PUBL], a Swedish company, of S-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden

The following specification particularly describes and ascertain- the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed :-

Communication device and method
The present invention relates to a communication device and method, where a data unit oriented communication between a sender and a receiver is performed, said sender and receiver operating in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol.
Data unit oriented communication is well-known. In data unit oriented communication an amount of data is divided into one or more data units, where the structure of the data units is defined by a communication protocol to which the sender and receiver in the communication adhere. The protocol also defines how specific information is to be coded, and how the sender and/or receiver may react to specific information. Data unit oriented communication is also known as packet exchange communication. It should be noted that the data units used in connection with specific protocols have different names, such as packets, frames, segments etc. For the purpose of the present description, the term "data unit" shall generically refer to all types of units used in a data unit oriented communication.
A feature that many communication protocols use for increasing reliability is that of acknowledging received data. More specifically. a sender or sending peer of the given protocol sends out data units, and the receiver or receiving peer of the given protocol acknowledges the correct receipt by returning appropriate acknowledgment data units. In this way, the sending peer is informed that the data units that were sent were also correctly received, and can accordingly adjust the flow control of the further data units to be sent. An example of a protocol that uses acknowledgment data units is the so-called transmission control protocol (TCP), which is a part of the TCP/IP protocol suite.

The transmission control protocol and the TCP/IP protocol suite are e.g. well described in "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 - The Protocols" by W. Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley. 1994.
In order to cope with the fact that data units or acknowledgment data units may be lost, a time-out feature is provided in many protocols. Such a time-out feature means that a time-out period is set when data is sent, and if the specific data has not been acknowledged by the time the time-out period expires, a time-out response procedure is started. In TCP, the time-out response consists in retransmitting the data that was not acknowledged, and resetting one or more flow control parameters.
As an example, TCP uses a window-based flow control. TCP is a byte oriented protocol that divides a given number of bytes to be sent into so-called segments, and a record of the sent data is kept in terms of bytes, i.e. up to which byte the data was sent, and a record of the received data is also kept in terms of bytes, i.e. up to which byte the data was received. The simplest way of controlling the flow of segments in connection with acknowledgment messages would be to send a segment and not send the next segment until the segment last sent was acknowledged. Such a method of flow control would however not be very efficient. As already mentioned, TCP uses window-based flow control, which is also referred to a? flow control according to sliding windows. This concept is also well described in the above mentioned book by W. Richard Stevens.
Fig. 2 illustrates the concept of sliding windows. As can be seen, an amount of 8.192 bytes is to be sent in the example, where this amount is divided into 8 segments. The sending of segments is controlled in accordance with

the send window, where the left end of the send window is defined by the data in the segments that have been sent and already acknowledged. In the example of Fig. 2 this is the data up to 2.048 bytes, i.e. the segments 1 and 2. The adjustment of the length of the send window, and thereby the right end of the window is a matter of the control procedure, which need not be explained in detail here.
The send window defines the amount of data which may have its corresponding acknowledgment outstanding. In the example of Fig. 2, the data up to 4 096 bytes, i.e. segments 3 and 4 have been sent and not yet acknowledged, and the difference between such sent and not acknowledged segments and the right end of the send window defines the usable window, i.e. the data that may still be sent without having received any further acknowledgments. As a consequence, in the example of Fig. 2 segments 5 and 6 may still be sent, but segments 7 and 8 can only be sent if the window moves to the right, which happens if further segments are acknowledged such that the left end moves to the right and/or if the length of the send window increases.
Furthermore, it should be noted that TCP provides for cumulative acknowledgment, i.e. there is not a one-to-one correspondence between segments and acknowledgments for segments, because one acknowledgment message may cover a plurality of segments. As an example, the receiving peer for the data amount shown in Fig. 2 could send an acknowledgment of bytes up to 4.096. such that this acknowledgment message would cover both segments 3 and 4.
The send window used by the sending peer will typically be determined by the so-called offered or advertised window, which is a data length provided to the sending peer by the receiving peer. In this way, the receiving peer can influence how many segments the sending peer

will send at a time, and typically the advertised window will be calculated on the basis of the receiving peer"s receive buffer. Also, the advertised window is a dynamic parameter that may be changed with every acknowledgment sent by the receiving peer.
Beyond the advertised window, it is also known to define the so-called congestion window, which is used in connection with several congestion control routines such as slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit and fast recovery, again see e.g. the above mentioned book by W. Richard Stevens. The congestion window is a record that the sending peer keeps, and it is intended to take into account the congestion along the connection between the sending peer and receiving peer. As a typical control mechanism, the send window will be defined as the smaller of the advertised window and congestion window.
While the advertised window is a flow control imposed by the receiving peer, the congestion window is a flow control imposed by the sending peer, as a mechanism for taking congestion into account.
In a general sense, the congestion window is an example of an adaptive flow control parameter. In TCP the above mentioned time-out response consists in resetting the congestion window to one segment and then consequently only sending one segment, namely retransmitting the segment that was not acknowledged and thereby caused the time-out. The sending peer then waits for the acknowledgment of said retransmitted segment.
Another example of an adaptive flow control parameter is the time out period itself, which e.g. in TCP is referred to as RTO (Retransmission Time Out). The RTO is doubled as a response to a time out.

As already mentioned, the time-out feature is a data loss detection mechanism. Other data loss detection mechanisms exist. Another example is the retransmission of data units in TCP in response to the receipt of duplicate acknowledgments. This mechanism will be briefly explained in the following.
As already mentioned (see e.g. Fig. 2). a data amount to be sent is divided into a sequence. Conventional implementations of TCP are arranged such that if the receiving peer has received and acknowledged a certain data amount up to a given byte (a certain number of consecutive segments) , it expects the data that is next in the sequence. For example, if segments up to segment 4 have been received, then segment 4 is acknowledged and the receiving peer expects to receive segment 5. If it then receives a further data unit that is different from segment 5 (e.g. segments 6, 7 and 8). it continues to acknowledge segment 4 for each data unit it receives. As a consequence, the sending peer receives duplicate acknowledgments. Commonly, TCP is implemented in such a way that the sending peer will count the number of duplicate acknowledgments, and if a certain threshold value is reached (e.gr 3). then the data unit next in the sequence to the data unit for which duplicate acknowledgments were received is retransmitted.
It is the object of the present invention to improve the communication in a system using a communications protocol that specifies the acknowledgment of sent data and specifies a data loss detection function, such as a time-out function or a duplicate acknowledgment response function.

This object is solved by the novel method and the novel device. The subject method relates to a method for controlling a data unit oriented communication between a sender and a receiver operating in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where
said sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol,
said receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender,
said data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, and
said flow control procedure comprises a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detect on mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) is conducted, which comprises the retransmission (S3) of a given data unit, characterized in that
said response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes (S6, S7) for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters, and, comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit.
In the subject communication device it relates to a communication device for data unit oriented communication in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where said communication divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol and the receiver in said communication acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgements data units to the sender, said communication device comprising:
a means such that when said communication device acts as a sender, it is arranged to send data units in accordance with a flow control procedure that is conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, said flow control procedure comprising a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detection mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure is conducted, which comprises the retransmission of a given data unit, wherein
said communication device is arranged such that
said response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters and comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters,
said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit.

In accordance with the present invention, a sender in a communication will conduct a response procedure in response to an event that triggers a data loss detection mechanism, where the response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting the adaptive parameters used in flow control. In this way the method and device of the present invention are highly flexible in their management of triggering events, and can especially be implemented in such a way that the response procedure may be chosen depending on various potential causes of the triggering event, such that the correct responsive measures to a given situation may be invoked, and thereby measures can be avoided that might actually aggravate situations that may occur after a data loss detection mechanism was triggered.
The data loss detection mechanism is a mechanism that is capable of detecting a data loss. Examples are a time-out mechanism or a duplicate acknowledgment mechanism. Naturally, the invention may be applied to any suitable data loss detection mechanism.
According to the present invention, a response procedure comprises at least two different modes for adapting the adaptive parameters used in flow control. As an example, which constitutes a preferred embodiment, there are two modes, which are respectively associated with different causes of a time-out or a predetermined number of duplicate acknowledgments (e.g. the above mentioned 3) . More specifically, a first mode is associated with the loss of a data unit, and the second mode is associated with an excessive delay along the connection. Due to the use of two different modes, it is possible to adapt the parameters a.s is appropriate for the cause of the time¬out or duplicate acknowledgments. Accordingly, the flow control procedure will contain one or more evaluation and judgment steps, in which the triggering event is qualified, e.g. a categorization is conducted as to what

caused the event. Then, depending on the result of this characterization, an appropriate response procedure may be enabled. In the context of the above example, if it is determined that the time-out or duplicate acknowledgments are caused by the loss of a data unit, then the known response procedure to the loss of data units may be run, as it is e.g. known from conventional TCP, which assumes that any time-out or the receipt of several duplicate acknowledgments is caused by the loss of a data unit. In accordance with the present embodiment, there is however a second mode, and if it is determined that the time-out or duplicate acknowledgments are caused by an excessive delay along the connection, then an excessive delay response procedure is run, which will typically be different from the response procedure to the loss of a data unit.
More specifically, as will also be explained in more detail in the following, the judgment that data units have been lost will be answered by reducing the transmission rate to thereby avoid further congestion. On the other hand, if there is excessive delay along the connection, then the measures taken in response to a supposed loss of data units would not be helpful, much rather they might actually aggravate the problem causing the excessive delay. Consequently, the response procedure to excessive delay will typically be different, and e.g. comprise keeping the transmission rate at the previous level, but on the other hand increasing the time-out period, such that further unnecessary retransmissions are avoided.
Naturally, the present invention may be implemented as providing an arbitrary number of modes or response procedures to various causes of triggering events. The number of modes and the specific measures taken in each mode naturally depend on the specific situation, i.e. the chosen protocol, the given communication situation, etc.

An important aspect of the present invention is that although the data loss detection mechanism is capable of detecting data loss, the reaction to the triggering of the data loss detection mechanism does not assume that a data loss has necessarily occured. much rather a flexible response is possible, which may take into account various causes of the triggering event.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention shall be better understood from the following detailed description, which makes reference to the figures, in which:
Fig. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the control procedure
according to the present invention;
Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram for describing the concept
of window-based flow control;
Fig. 3 is a graph for explaining the advantages of the present invention; and
Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram for illustrating a situation in which an excessive delay may be caused in a connection between two host computers.
Although the following description will be generally directed cowards any communications protocol that makes use of data acknowledgment and also provides a time-out feature, examples will often be given that relate to the transmission control protocol TCP known from the TCP/IP protocol suite. The application of the present invention to this protocol is a preferred embodiment- In order to avoid any unnecessary repetition, the disclosure in the

taking TCP as a protocol example, this may consist in returning the congestion window to the value stored in step S2 and on the other hand adapting the time-out period to the delay. In other words, the round trip time RTT associated with the original transmission and the acknowledgment of the original transmission can be used as a basis for adapting the time-out period. Thereby, further unnecessary retransmissions and time-outs or duplicate acknowledgments due to excessive delay can be avoided.
Preferably, the congestion window is not simply reset to the previous value, but much rather is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place, i.e. had the data loss detection mechanism not been triggered.
As can be seen, the example of Fig. 1 shows a first mode consisting of steps S2, S3, S4, S5 and S7, as well as a second mode consisting of steps S2. S3, S4, S5 and S6.
In order to better explain the present invention, reference will now be made to Fig. 3, which shows an example of a flow control procedure conducted in connection with conventional TCP. The graph shows the amount of data in bytes transported over time. As can be seen, the first two segments are sent at time t=4s. Then, due to the interaction of receiving acknowledgment data units and the adjustment of adaptive parameters not shown, segments are sent.
For the purpose of explanation, it should be noted that the diamond shaped symbols refer to segments, and the square symbols to acknowledgment data units. The diamond symbols indicate the first byte of the segment, whereas the squares indicate the lowest unacknowledged byte. The acknowledgment data units indicated at a certain segment level always acknowledge the sent segments up to that

segment level. In other words. the acknowledgment at a segment level of 6.4 00 bytes (t=12s) acknowledges the segments below 6.400 byte, but not including byte 6.400. Quite to the contrary, as explicitly indicated in the graph, the segment at 6.400 byte (t=10s) is a data unit or packet that causes a time-out. As a consequence, a retransmission is conducted of said data t the 6.400 byte level.
Now, if it is assumed that the time-out shown in Fig. 3 was caused by an excessive delay and not by the shown first packet being lost, then the retransmission has the following negative consequences.
For one thing, it leads to a decreased throughput performance, as the same data has to traverse the connection or connecting path twice, which wastes bandwidths that could have otherwise been used for useful data. This negative, consequence will occur in any protocol that falsely responds to a time-out by retransmitting the data unit.
If, as shown in Fig. 3, the TCP protocol is used, then the reaction of the sending peer to such a time-out not caused by data unit loss is particularly disadvantageous: the sender will retransmit all outstanding packets and above that reduce its transmission rate. This is explicitly shown in Fig. 3.
It may be noted that the above described time-out not caused by data unit loss is also referred to as a spurious time-out.
As also shown in Fig. 3. in conventional TCP the sender misinterprets all acknowledgments associated with retransmitted data units as acknowledging the retransmission, eventhough these acknowledgments (ACKs)

in fact are delayed acknowledgments of Che original transmissions.
What Fig. 3 does not show, is that additionally the duplicate data units sent by the sending peer will trigger duplicate acknowledgments at the receiving peer, which will lead to yet another reduction in the transmission rate at the conventional TCP sender, namely the congestion window is set to one half of its earlier value.
The occurrence of excessive delay that goes beyond what the TCP time-out period can account for. may especially appear in wireless networks or such protocol connections of which at least a part runs over a wireless link. The inventors of the present application realized that spurious time-outs can happen often enough in such networks, so that serious performance degradation results. Examples of this will now briefly be mentioned.
Fig. 4 shows a situation, where two host computers act as peers of the TCP (indicated by the long arrows from host to host at the bottom and top of the figure). The lower protocol layers comprise a radio link over a wireless access network to the internet- The connection between the internet and the host on the right is not shown. An example of a protocol for the radio link is the so-called radio link control protocol RLC. As indicated in Fig. 4, both the transport layer protocol (e.g. TCP) and the link layer protocol (e.g. RLC) have an ARQ (Automatic Retransmission reQuest) function. This means that these protocols both implement time-out and retransmission functions. In the situation of Fig. 4, due to the ARQ being used at the link layer, a race condition is generated between the link layer and the transport layer: while the link layer retransmits data, the transport retransmission timer might expire, leading to a spurious time-out. The retransmissions at the link layer can be

due e.g. to transmission errors or to data loss because of handovers.
It may also be noted that the transmission delay over the wireless network is often a considerable fraction of the end-to-end delay between the sending and receiving peer of the transport layer protocol. If in this case the bandwidth available to the transport layer connection in the wireless network drops considerably over a short period of time, the resulting increase in the end-to-end delay between the transport layer sender and receiver might lead to spurious time-outs. Examples of bandwidth drops include mobile hosts executing a handover into a cell which provides less bandwidth than the old cell
As already indicated previously, when employing the present invention, the problem described in connection " with Fig. 3 can be avoided. More specifically, when applying the method described in connection with Fig. 1 to the problem in Fig. 3. then the sending peer is capable of distinguishing between acknowledgment data units to the original transmission of a data unit and acknowledgment data units to the retransmission of a data unit. From this information, the sender can decide if a spurious time-out has occurred, or if there indeed has been a loss of a data unit. The sender can then react accordingly.
More specifically, in the example of Fig. 3. the sender using the invention will be able to identify the acknowledgment data unit received after having retransmitted the shown first packet as being an acknowledgment for the original transmission (t=10s) and not for the retransmission

sender determines that this acknowledgment belongs to the original transmission and not the retransmission. This fraction may be set to a fixed value, or may itself be an adaptive parameter. Naturally, it is not necessary that the comparison value multiplied with said fraction is the shortest measured RTT, much rather it is also possible that the sender keeps an average RTT value. In this sense, the comparison value to be multiplied by said fraction is generally a function of one or more RTT values measured in the course of the connection (during the session).
According to another preferred embodiment for implementing step S5, the sender adds a mark to data units that it sends, where said mark is defined in such a way that it allows to distinguish between an original transmission and a retransmission. Then, the receiver can accordingly mark acknowledgment data units, such that the sender is capable of identifying if an acknowledgment refers to the original transmission or the retransmission.
This marking of data units can be done in any desired way. For example, it would in theory be possible to simply designate a single bit in the data units, where a value of 0 would indicate original transmission and a value of 1 a retransmission, or vice versa. In a general sense, a bit string can be chosen that may also convey some more information. However, in connection with, protocols that provide for such an option, it is preferred to use the time stamp option. This option is e.g. well known for TCP. see the above mentioned book by W. R. Stevens. In other words, it is preferred to include a time stamp in sent data units, which indicates when the data unit was sent. The receiver can then simply include the same time stamp in the acknowledgment data unit, so that the sender has a unique way of identifying the data units to which the acknowledgment refers.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments, these do not restrict the scope, and are only intended to convey a 5 better understanding of the invention. Much rather, the scope of the invention is determined by the appended claims -

WE CLAIM:
1. A method for controlling a data unit oriented communication
between a sender and a receiver operating in accordance with a
i predetermined communication protocol, where
said sender divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more data units having a structure determined by said protocol,
said receiver acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgment data units to said sender,
said data units are sent by said sender in accordance with a flow control procedure conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, and
said flow control procedure comprises a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detect on mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure (SI, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) is conducted, which comprises the retransmission (S3) of a given data unit, characterized in that
said response procedure (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprises at least two different modes (S6, S7) for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters, and, comprises a decision (S5) on which of said

at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters, said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a time out mechanism, such that after a given data unit is sent, said sender monitors a time out period and if no acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is received before said time out period expires, said time out mechanism is triggered.
3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism, such that said sender monitors the received acknowledgments, and if a data unit is acknowledged a predetermined number of times, said duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism is triggered.
4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said time out period is one of said adaptive parameters.
5. A method as claimed in one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said flow control procedure is window based, and one or more flow control windows are among said adaptive parameters.
6. A method as claimed in one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said at least two modes consist of a first arid a second mode, said first mode being associated with the judgment that the triggering event was caused by

the loss of said, given data unit, and said second mode being associated with the judgment that said given data unit or the acknowledgment data unit for said given data unit has been excessively delayed.
7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said sender marks data units being sent such that an original transmission may be distinguished from a retransmission, and said receiver correspondingly marks the acknowledgment data units, such that the acknowledgment of an originally sent data unit may be distinguished from the acknowledgment of the retransmission of said data unit.
8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the sender marks data units by including a time stamp in each sent data unit, said time stamp indicating the time said data unit was sent, and the receiver marks the acknowledgment data unit for a received data unit by including the time stamp contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit.
9. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the sender marks data units by including a bit string in each sent data unit, said bit string having at least two different values for distinguishing between an original transmission and a retransmission, and the receiver marks the acknowledgment data unit for a received data
unit by including the bit string contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said bit string consists of a single bit.
11. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said bit string consists of a plurality of bits, such that said bit string is capable of distinguishing between different retransmissions.
12. A method as claimed in one of claims 9 to 11, wherein said first mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the retransmission of said given data unit, and said second mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the original transmission of said given data unit.
13. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein
the sender measures the round trip time associated with the connection for sending of said amount of data,
the time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit is determined and compared to a value derived from one or more of said round trip time measurements, and
said first or second mode is chosen on the basis of the result of said comparison.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said value derived from said round trip time measurements is the shortest round trip time for the connection, and the second mode is chosen if said time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is smaller than a predetermined fraction of said smallest round trip time.
15. A method as claimed in one of claims 6 to 14, wherein the second mode comprises adapting the time out period on the basis of the time that elapsed between the original transmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit.
16. A method as claimed in one of claims 6 to 15, wherein the flow control procedure is window based and a congestion window is used, where the value of said congestion window at the time of said triggering event is stored after said triggering event occurred and subsequently said value of the congestion window is reset to a predetermined value, and if said second mode is chosen after having received the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit, said value of said congestion window is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place.
17. A communication device for data unit oriented communication in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, where said communication divides an amount of data to be sent into one or more

data units having a structure determined by said protocol and the receiver in said communication acknowledges the correct receipt of data units by returning acknowledgements data units to the sender, said communication device comprising:
a means such that when said communication device acts as a sender, it is arranged to send data units in accordance with a flow control procedure that is conducted on the basis of one or more adaptive parameters and said acknowledgment data units, said flow control procedure comprising a data loss detection mechanism capable of detecting data loss in said communication, said data loss detection mechanism being triggered to indicate the potential loss of data by one or more predetermined events, where in response to the triggering of said data loss detection mechanism a corresponding response procedure is conducted, which comprises the retransmission of a given data unit, wherein
said communication device is arranged such that
said response procedure (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) comprisesat least two different modes for adapting said one or more adaptive parameters and comprises a decision (S5) on which of said at least two modes (S6, S7) to choose for adapting said adaptive parameters,
said decision (S5) being made on the basis of one or more acknowledgment data units received by said sender after having retransmitted said given data unit.

,18. A device as claimed in claim 17, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a time out mechanism, such that after a given data unit is sent, said sender is arranged to monitor a time out period and if no acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit is received before said time out period expires, said time out mechanism is triggered.
19. A device as claimed in claim 17, wherein said data loss detection mechanism is a duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism, such that said sender is arranged to monitor the received acknowledgments, and if a data unit is acknowledged a predetermined number of times, said duplicate acknowledgment detection mechanism is triggered.
20. A device as claimed in claim 18, wherein said time out period is one of said adaptive parameters.
21. A device as claimed in one of claims 17 to 20, wherein said flow control procedure is window based, and one or more flow control windows are among said adaptive parameters.
22. A device as claimed in one of claims 17 to 21, wherein
said at least two modes consist of a first and a second mode, said first mode being associated with the judgment that the triggering event was caused by the loss of said given data unit, and said second mode being associated with the judgement that said given data unit or the

acknowledgement data unit for said given data unit has been excessively delayed.
23. A device as claimed in claim 22, wherein said device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units being sent such that an original transmission may be distinguished from a retransmission, and said device when acting as a receiver is arranged to correspondingly mark the acknowledgement data units, such that the acknowledgement of an originally sent data unit may be distinguished from the acknowledgement of the retransmission of said data unit.
24. A device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units by including a time stamp in each sent data unit, said time stamp indicating the time said data unit was sent, and the device when acting as a receiver is arranged to mark the acknowledgement data unit for a received data unit in the acknowledgment data unit for said received data unit.
25. A device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the device when acting as a sender is arranged to mark data units by including a bit string in each sent data unit, said bit string having at least two different values for distinguishing between an original transmission and a retransmission, and the device when acting as a receiver is arranged to mark the acknowledgement data unit for a received data unit by including the bit string contained in said received data unit in the acknowledgement data unit for said received data unit.

26. A device as claimed in claim 24 or 25, being arranged such that said first mode is chosen if the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the retransmission of said given data unit, and said second mode is chosen if the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit that is received after having retransmitted said given data unit acknowledges the original transmission of said given data unit.
27. A device as claimed in claim 22, wherein
the device when acting as a sender is arranged to measure the round trip time associated with the connection for sending of said amount of data,
to determine the time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgement data unit associated with said given data unit and to compare to a value derived from one or more of said round trip time measurements, and
to choose said first or second mode on the basis of the result of said comparison.
28. A device as claimed in claim 27, wherein said value derived from
said round trip time measurements is the shortest round trip time for
the connection, and the device is arranged to choose said second mode
if said time between the retransmission of said given data unit and the
receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said
given data unit is smaller than a predetermined fraction of said
smallest round trip time.

29. A device as claimed in one of claims 22 to 28, wherein the second mode comprises adapting the time out period on the basis of the time that elapsed between the original transmission of said given data unit and the receipt of the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit.
30. A device as claimed in one of claims 22 to 29, wherein, the flow control procedure is window based and a congestion window is used, where the value of said congestion window at the time of said triggering event is stored after said triggering event occurred and subsequently said value of the congestion window is reset to a predetermined value, and if said second mode is chosen after having received the first acknowledgment data unit associated with said given data unit, said value of said congestion window is set to the value it would have assumed, had the response procedure not taken place.
Dated this June 15, 2001.
(RANJANA MEHTA DUTT)
OF REMFRY AND SAGAR
ATTORNEY FOR THE APPLICANTS

Documents:

abstract1.jpg

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-cancelled pages(15-6-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-claims(granted)-(8-11-2004).doc

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-claims(granted)-(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-correspondence 1(25-6-2007).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-correspondence 2(14-3-2006).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-correspondence(ipo)-(17-10-2006).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-drawing(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 19(3-7-2003).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 1a(17-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 1a(25-7-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 2(granted)-(8-11-2004).doc

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 2(granted)-(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 3(15-6-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 3(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form 5(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form-pct-ipea-409(15-6-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-form-pct-isa-210(15-6-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-petition under rule137(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-petition under rule138(17-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-petition under rule138(8-11-2004).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-power of authority(15-6-2001).pdf

in-pct-2001-00709-mum-power of authority(30-9-2004).pdf

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Patent Number

210884

Indian Patent Application Number

IN/PCT/2001/00709/MUM

PG Journal Number

43/2007

Publication Date

26-Oct-2007

Grant Date

15-Oct-2007

Date of Filing

15-Jun-2001

Name of Patentee

TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON [PUBL]

Applicant Address

S-126 25 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	REINER LUDWIG	c/o HOEPPNER HELGA, IM LEVERT 14, D-52355 DUREN, GERMANY.
2	MICHAEL MEYER	ANNASTRASSE 17, D-52062 AACHEN, GERMANY

PCT International Classification Number

H04L 12/56, 29/06

PCT International Application Number

PCT/EP99/10480

PCT International Filing date

1999-12-31

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1			NA