Frame-merging apparatus and method

A frame-merging apparatus adapted for a network, the network including a plurality of mesh units and a plurality of terminal units, in which any two units capable of communicating with each other form a communication pair for transmitting a plurality of pending frames, said frame-merging apparatus comprising:

• a starter designating one of the units as a key unit, and determining whether the key unit is a mesh unit or a terminal unit;
• a selector which, for the communication pair recorded in each pending frame, selects a suitable scheme from a plurality of frame-merging schemes, and extracts at least one of the pending frames for use as part or all of a priority frame set;
• and
• a frame planner comparing a total size of all frames included in the priority frame set with a suitable frame size, so as to determine whether the key unit is to send an aggregated frame.

A frame-merging method adapted for a network, the network including a plurality of mesh units and a plurality of terminal units, in which any two units capable of communicating with each other form a communication pair, said frame-merging method comprising:

• determining a type of the communication pair according to a transmission path recorded in each frame;
• selecting a suitable scheme from a plurality of frame-merging schemes according to the type of the communication pair;
• and
• merging a plurality of frames according to the suitable scheme.