Method and apparatus for enhancing rlc for flexible rlc pdu size
AssigneeInterDigital Technology Corporation
InventorsDiana Pani, James M. Miller, Paul Marinier, Stephen E. Terry, Sudheer A. Grandhi
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Abstract
Enhancements are provided for the radio link control (RLC) protocol in wireless communication systems where variable RLC packet data unit (PDU) size is allowed. When flexible RLC PDU sizes are configured by upper layers, radio network controller (RNC)/Node B flow control, RLC flow control, status reporting and polling mechanisms are configured to use byte count based metrics in order to prevent possible buffer underflows in the Node B and buffer overflows in the RNC. The enhancements proposed herein for the RLC apply to both uplink and downlink communications.
Claims10
A method for polling comprising:
- maintaining a byte count mechanism, wherein the byte count mechanism maintains a count associated with a number of bytes transmitted from a transmitting entity configured to support flexible packet data unit size;
- determining whether or not the count is equal to or exceeds a Poll_Bytes value;
- and
- on a condition that the count is determined to be equal to or exceed the Poll— Bytes value, configuring a packet data unit for transmission from the transmitting entity to include a poll.
A transmitting entity configured to support flexible packet data unit size, the transmitting entity comprising:
- a memory configured to store a count associated with a number of bytes transmitted;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- determine whether or not the count is equal to or exceeds a Poll_Bytes value;
- and
- on a condition that the count is determined to be equal to or exceed the Poll_Bytes value, configure a packet data unit for transmission from the transmitting entity to include a poll.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.