Method for explicit data rate control in a packet communication environment without data rate supervision
AssigneePacketeer, Inc.
InventorRobert L. Packer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for explicit data rate control is introduced into a packet communication environment (10) which does not have data rate supervision by adding latency to the acknowledgment (ACK) packet and by adjusting the size of the flow control window associated with the packet in order to directly control the data rate of the source data at the station (12 or 14) originating the packet.
Claims19
A method for controlling data rate of data packets transmitted between a plurality of transmission stations, said method comprising:
- transferring information between first and second subsets of said plurality of transmission stations by sending first and second units of source packets from said first subset to said second subset and receiving an acknowledgment packet, from said second subset, by said first subset, with said acknowledgment packet being received by said first subset before transmission of said second unit of source packets, with said data rate being a function of a time interval between transmission of said first and second units of source packets by said first subset;
- and
- varying said data rate as a function of said time interval.
An apparatus for controlling data rate of data packets transmitted between a plurality of transmission stations, comprising:
- means for transferring information between first and second subsets of said plurality of transmission stations by sending first and second units of source packets from said first subset to said second subset and receiving an acknowledgment packet, from said second subset, by said first subset, with said acknowledgment packet being received by said first subset before transmission of said second unit of source packets, with said data rate being a function of a time interval between transmission of said first and second units of source packets by said first subset;
- and
- means, in data communication with said means for transferring, for 11 varying said data rate as a function of said time interval.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.