# US 2014/0195637 A1 · Adapted physical-layer transmission properties based on packet stream > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0195637 A1 - Document ID: US20140195637A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/738,607 - Filed: 2013-01-10 - Published: 2014-07-10 - Earliest claimed: 2013-01-10 - Assignees: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Applicants: Qualcomm Incorporated - Inventors: Ehab Tahir; John Fraser Chappel; Nikolai Kroupetski; Vladimir Vidovic; Hassan Afkhami; Purva R. Rajkotia; Manjunath Anandarama Krishnam - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140195637A1 ## CPC - H04L 65/61: for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio - H04B 3/03: Hybrid circuits (for transceivers H04B1/52, H04B1/58) - H04B 3/542: {the information being in digital form} - H04L 5/0046: {Determination of the number of bits transmitted on different sub-channels} - H04L 5/0064: {Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority} - H04B 2203/5408: using protocols - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - H04B: TRANSMISSION ## Abstract A device may determine adapted physical layer transmission properties based upon characteristics of a packet stream to be transmitted via a communications channel. The physical layer transmission properties may comprise an adapted tone map that is associated with an aggressive physical layer throughput capability for UDP traffic, a conservative physical layer throughput capability for TCP traffic, or a dynamically adjusted physical layer throughput rate for mixed traffic. An indication regarding the adapted tone map may be included in a first message, a portion of a physical layer framing protocol, a physical layer control transmission (such as a frame control symbol), or other transmissions such that the receiving device can derive the adapted tone map without significant added overhead. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: determining, at a first hybrid device, characteristics of a packet stream to be transmitted from the first hybrid device to a second hybrid device via a communications channel of a hybrid network; determining an adapted tone map for the communications channel based at least in part upon the characteristics of the packet stream, wherein the adapted tone map is a first tone map if the characteristics of the packet stream include a first characteristic that the packet stream is associated with Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP), and wherein the adapted tone map is a second tone map if the characteristics of the packet stream include a second characteristic that the packet stream is associated with Transport Control Protocol (TCP), the second tone map having a slower physical throughput than the first tone map; and transmitting at least one packet of the packet stream from the first hybrid device to the second hybrid device using the adapted tone map. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the first tone map is an aggressive tone map relative to the second tone map, and the second tone map is a conservative tone map relative to the first tone map. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the first tone map is associated with an offered tone map provided by the second hybrid device. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the second tone map is based upon an adjustment factor applied to the offered tone map. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: communicating an indication regarding the adapted tone map from the first hybrid device to the second hybrid device prior to said transmitting. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the adapted tone map is adjusted dynamically if the characteristics of the packet stream include both the first characteristic that the packet stream is associated with UDP and the second characteristic that the packet stream is associated with TCP. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: for a second packet stream to be transmitted from the first hybrid device to the second hybrid device: determining, at the first hybrid device, characteristics of the second packet stream; determining a second adapted tone map based at least in part upon the characteristics of the second packet stream; and transmitting at least one packet of the second packet stream from the first hybrid device to the second hybrid device using the second adapted tone map. ### Claim 8 A communication system comprising: a transmitting device coupled to a communications channel between the transmitting device and a receiving device, the transmitting device configured to: for at least a first packet of a packet stream to be transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving device, determine physical layer transmission properties for the communications channel based at least in part upon an upper layer protocol field included in the first packet, and transmit the first packet of the packet stream to the receiving device using the determined physical layer transmission properties; and the receiving device coupled to the communications channel, the receiving device configured to receive the first packet of the packet stream using the determined physical layer transmission properties. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The communication system of claim 8, wherein the communications channel includes a powerline communications channel and the physical layer transmission properties comprise a physical layer tone map. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The communication system of claim 8, wherein the transmitting device is further configured to communicate an indication regarding the determined physical layer transmission properties to the receiving device; and wherein the receiving device is further configured to receive the indication and derive the determined physical layer transmission properties based upon the indication. ### Claim 11 A method comprising: for at least a first packet of a packet stream to be transmitted from a first device to a second device via a hybrid network: determining, at the first device, a physical layer tone map for a communications channel of the hybrid network, the physical layer tone map based at least in part upon an upper layer protocol field included in the first packet; and transmitting at least the first packet of the packet stream to the second device using the determined physical layer tone map. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein said determining the physical layer tone map includes: for a first type of data, setting the physical layer tone map to a first physical layer (PHY) transmission rate that has lower latency than a second PHY transmission rate, and for a second type of data, setting the physical layer transmission properties to the second PHY transmission rate. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, wherein the first type of data includes Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic, and the second type of data includes Transport Control Protocol (TCP) traffic. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein said determining the physical layer tone map includes determining a transmitter-selected tone map for use over the communications channel between the first device and the second device, the transmitter-selected tone map including physical layer transmission properties for each of a set of frequencies. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein the transmitter-selected tone map is different from a receiver-provided tone map having a higher transmission speed previously determined based upon a channel estimation process compared to the transmitter-selected tone map. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein, for a first type of data, the transmitter-selected tone map utilizes a smaller modulation scheme for at least one frequency than the receiver-provided tone map. ### Claim 17 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, further comprising: communicating a signal indicative of the transmitter-selected tone map to the destination device. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein the signal is communicated in a frame control portion of a physical layer transmission unit. ### Claim 19 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein the signal includes an adjustment factor indicating that the transmitter-selected tone map is derived based upon the adjustment factor and the receiver-selected tone map. ### Claim 20 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein said determining includes determining the physical layer tone map at medium access control (MAC) layer of the first device. ### Claim 21 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein said physical layer tone map includes, for each of a set of frequencies used on the communication channel, one or more of a modulation scheme, forward error correction scheme, coding rate, or guard interval. ### Claim 22 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein said determining includes: sending to the second device, an indication of the type of data associated with the packet stream, and receiving a the physical layer tone map from the second device, the physical layer tone map based at least in part upon a channel estimation process and the type of data associated with the packet stream. ### Claim 23 A first device comprising: a physical layer controller configured to, for at least a first packet of a packet stream to be transmitted from the first device to a second device via a hybrid network, determine a physical layer tone map for a communications channel of the hybrid network, the physical layer tone map based at least in part upon an upper layer protocol field included in the first packet; and a network interface configured to transmit at least the first packet of the packet stream to the second device using the determined physical layer tone map. ### Claim 24 (depends on 23) The first device of claim 23, wherein, for a first type of data, the physical layer tone map is associated with a first physical layer (PHY) transmission rate that has lower latency and less reliability than a second PHY transmission rate, and for a second type of data, the physical layer transmission properties are associated with the second PHY transmission level. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The first device of claim 24, wherein the first type of data includes Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic and the second type of data includes Transport Control Protocol (TCP) traffic. ### Claim 26 (depends on 23) The first device of claim 23, wherein the physical layer controller is further configure to: cause the network interface to communicate a signal indicative of determined physical layer tone map to the second device prior to transmitting at least the first packet of the packet stream. ### Claim 27 (depends on 26) The first device of claim 26, wherein the signal is communicated in a frame control portion of a physical layer transmission unit. ### Claim 28 (depends on 26) The first device of claim 26, wherein the signal includes an adjustment factor indicating that the physical layer tone map is derived based upon the adjustment factor and a previously exchanged tone map. ### Claim 29 A method comprising: receiving, from a first device at a second device, first packets associated with a first portion of a packet stream, the first packets received using a first set of physical layer transmission properties; determining, at the second device, a second set of physical layer transmission properties for use with subsequent packets of the packet stream, the physical layer transmission properties based, at least in part, upon a type of data in the first packets; communicating the second set of physical layer transmission properties to the first device; and receiving second packets associated with a second portion the packet stream using the second set of physical layer transmission properties. ### Claim 30 (depends on 29) The method of claim 29, wherein the second set of physical layer transmission properties is also based at least in part upon an amount of receive buffer available at the second device. ### Claim 31 (depends on 29) The method of claim 29, wherein said communicating the second set of physical layer transmission properties comprises communicating an adjustment factor that is usable with the first set of physical layer transmission properties to derive the second set of transmission properties. ### Claim 32 (depends on 29) The method of claim 29, wherein the packet stream includes a mix of Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. ### Claim 33 A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program code, the computer program code comprising instructions which when executed by a processor of a hybrid device cause the hybrid device to: for at least a first packet of a packet stream to be transmitted from a first device to a second device via a hybrid network: determine, at the first device, a physical layer tone map for a communications channel of the hybrid network, the physical layer tone map based at least in part upon an upper layer protocol field included in the first packet; and transmit at least the first packet of the packet stream to the second device using the determined physical layer tone map. ### Claim 34 (depends on 33) The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein said computer program code further comprise instructions which when executed by a processor of a hybrid device cause the hybrid device to: for a first type of data, set the physical layer tone map to a first physical layer (PHY) transmission rate that has lower latency and less reliability than a second PHY transmission rate, and for a second type of data, set the physical layer transmission properties to the second PHY transmission rate. ### Claim 35 (depends on 33) The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 33, wherein the first type of data includes Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic, and the second type of data includes Transport Control Protocol (TCP) traffic.