Symbol-Level Fragmentation and Pre-Emption in Industrial Wireless Communications

A packet transmitter in a wireless communication system, the packet transmitter comprising processing circuitry for preparing transmission of physical layer protocol data units (PDUs), the processing circuitry being configured to cause the packet transmitter to:

• detect a need to transmit a second stream of symbols having higher priority than a first stream of symbols currently being transmitted from the packet transmitter to a packet receiver, wherein the first and second streams of symbols are each part of a respective physical layer PDU;
• insert a dedicated tag after a recent-most transmitted symbol of the first stream of symbols, the dedicated tag indicative of the first stream of symbols being subjected to pre-emption at the physical layer;
• and
• insert symbols of the second stream of symbols following the dedicated tag for transmission of the second stream of symbols to the packet receiver.

A packet receiver in a wireless communication system comprising processing circuitry for reception of physical layer protocol data units (PDUs) the packet receiver, the processing circuitry being configured to cause the packet receiver to:

• receive a first stream of symbols, the first stream of symbols being fragmented into symbols, wherein the first stream of symbols is part of a first physical layer PDU;
• receive a dedicated tag after a recent-most received symbol of the first stream of symbols, the dedicated tag indicative of the first stream of symbols being subjected to pre-emption at the physical layer;
• and
• receive a second stream of symbols after the dedicated tag, wherein the second stream of symbols is part of a second physical layer PDU.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for preparing transmission of physical layer protocol data units (PDUs), the computer program comprising computer code which, when run on processing circuitry of a packet transmitter in a wireless communication system, causes the packet transmitter to:

• detect a need to transmit a second stream of symbols having higher priority than a first stream of symbols currently being transmitted from the packet transmitter to a packet receiver, wherein the first and second streams of symbols are each part of a respective physical layer PDU;
• insert a dedicated tag after a recent-most transmitted symbol of the first stream of symbols, the dedicated tag indicative of the first stream of symbols being subjected to pre-emption at the physical layer;
• and
• insert symbols of the second stream of symbols following the dedicated tag for transmission of the second stream of symbols to the packet receiver.