Method and apparatus for managing transmission of TCP data segments

#The field of the invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing transmission of data segments over an interface, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for managing the transmission of transmission control protocol (TCP) data segments over an air interface of a wireless communication network.

#In the field of this invention, it is known for devices to communicate across networks by way of protocols, the protocols acting as a set of rules governing how information, data, etc. is to be sent and/or received. The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite has become the de facto standard for computer communications in today's networks. The TCP/IP protocol suite is so named for two of its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). Another name for it is the Internet Protocol Suite, which is the phrase used in official Internet standards documents.

#As will be appreciated by a skilled artisan, in wireless systems, for example a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the air interface suffers from a high-loss data rate. Thus, such systems involve some form of re-transmission protocol, such as radio link control (RLC) in the data link layer, or HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) functionality at the MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, to provide re-transmission functionality. Due to the need to perform retransmissions, and the constantly changing air interface conditions, the round trip time (RTT) for data packets (namely a time taken from a transmission of a packet to the receipt of an acknowledgement for the packet) is variable. As a result, such air interfaces are known to suffer from a high and variable communication latency.

#Embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of part of a wireless communication device adapted to support of embodiments of the invention;

#FIG. 2 illustrates transmission management logic according to embodiments of the invention;

#Embodiments of the invention will be described in a context of a mobile telephone handset, for example adapted to communicate over a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Radio Access Network (UTRAN) system. However, it will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention are not limited to a mobile telephone handset, but may be implemented within alternative communication devices or network elements with which data segments are transmitted over an interface.

#Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a block diagram of part of a wireless communication device 100, adapted to support embodiments of the invention. The communication device 100, in the context of the illustrated embodiment of the invention, is user equipment (UE) in a form of a mobile telephone handset comprising an antenna 102. As such, the communication device 100 contains a variety of well known Radio Frequency (RF) components or circuits 106, operably coupled to the antenna 102 that will not be described further herein. The communication device 100 further comprises signal processing logic 108. An output from the signal processing logic 108 is provided to a suitable user interface (UI) 110 comprising, for example, a display, keypad, loudspeaker, and/or microphone.

#The signal processing logic 108 is coupled to a memory element 116 that stores operating regimes, such as decoding/encoding functions and the like and may be realised in a variety of technologies such as random access memory (RAM) (volatile), (non-volatile) read only memory (ROM), Flash memory or any combination of these or other memory technologies. A timer 118 is typically coupled to the signal processing logic 108 to control the timing of operations within the communication device 100.