Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving compressed frame of data over a wireless channel

A method of communicating digital data partitioned into a plurality of frames over a wireless communication channel, the method comprising:

• using a transmitter, identifying on which of the plurality of frames compression should be attempted;
• for each identified frame, repetitively compressing different search strings obtained from the identified frame, thereby creating a partially compressed frame;
• continuing repetitively compressing until
• either an entire frame has been compressed, thereby resulting in a compressed frame for transmission;
• or the partially compressed frame is larger than the identifed frame, thereby resulting in a non-compressed frame for transmission, wherein repetitively compressing includes:
• for each different search string, comparing, in parallel, each potential match strings with a search string to determine which potential match string will result in most matches;
• for the potential match string that results in the most matches, identifying an index and a length to identify a location of the potential match string within the identified frame;
• and
• using the index and the length to create the partially compressed frame;
• setting a compression flag in a header to:
• indicate whether the compressed frame or the non-compressed frame has resulted for the each identified frame, and
• indicate that a non-compressed frame has resulted for each frame that was not identified;
• and
• transmitting over the wireless communication channel a transmit block, the transmit block comprising:
• the header with a set compression flag, the set compression flag indicating a type of compression based on a bit size of the set compression flag;
• and
• one of the compressed frame and the non-compressed frame.

An apparatus for communicating digital data partitioned into a plurality of frames over a wireless communication channel, the apparatus comprising:

• Media Access Control (MAC) layer transmit circuitry, the MAC layer transmit circuitry including:
• a direct memory access (DMA) block that receives a frame;
• a compression engine for identifying on which of the plurality of frames compression should be attempted and, for each such frame, determining whether the frame can be compressed,
• for such determining, the compression engine including a plurality of parallel match logic circuits, each of the plurality of parallel match logic circuits comparing one of a plurality of search strings obtained from the frame to one of a plurality of match strings also obtained from the frame, the plurality of search strings being selected using a hash, wherein for each search string including a plurality of bytes, the hash is generated using less than all of the plurality of bytes, the compression engine updating information regarding the frame in compressed form based on results of the comparing,
• wherein when the frame in compressed form is larger than the frame, the compression engine indicates that a non-compressed frame is to be transmitted,
• wherein when the frame in compressed form is smaller than the frame, the compression engine indicates that a compressed frame is to be transmitted, and
• for any non-identified frame, the compression engine indicates that a non-compressed frame is to be transmitted;
• and
• a frame transmit control block for controlling when to transmit the compressed/non-compressed frame;
• baseband transmit circuitry that receives the compressed/non-compressed frame for transmission and generates a baseband signal therefrom;
• and
• radio frequency transmit circuitry that receives the baseband signal and generates a radio frequency signal therefrom,
• wherein the compression engine includes:
• a frame content buffer for storing the frame;
• a hash function block that obtains a hash of each of the plurality of search strings;
• a hash table that is populated with at least some hashes of the plurality of search strings and is used to determine addresses from which to obtain the plurality of match strings;
• and
• compression control logic that controls a sequence of operations using the hash function block, the hash table, and the parallel match logic circuits.