# US 8,787,378 B2 · Systems and methods to improve performance of TCP over large bandwidth-delay-product networks > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 8,787,378 B2 - Document ID: US8787378B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 13/337,772 - Filed: 2011-12-27 - Published: 2012-06-28 - Granted: 2014-07-22 - Earliest claimed: 2010-12-28 - Assignees: The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Applicants: Yiu Bun Lee; Wing San Wan - Inventors: Yiu Bun Lee; Wing San Wan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8787378B2 ## CPC - H04L 47/193: at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related - H04L 47/17: Interaction among intermediate nodes, e.g. hop by hop - H04L 47/25: with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract The apparatus, systems, and methods described herein may operate to receive at least one data packet from a transmitter connected to a first network. A packet forwarding time may be scheduled for the at least one data packet. The at least one data packet may be forwarded to a receiver connected to a second network based on the packet forwarding time such that transmission of the at least one data packet prevents a buffer overflow at the receiver. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving at least one data packet from a transmitter connected to a first network; scheduling a packet forwarding time for the at least one data packet; and forwarding the at least one data packet to a receiver connected to a second network based on the packet forwarding time such that transmission of the at least one data packet prevents a buffer overflow at the receiver, wherein a number of the at least one data packet to be forwarded to the receiver is determined based on amount of buffers freed-up at the receiver and amount of data packets received at the receiver during a round-trip-delay. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling of the packet forwarding time includes computing a packet forwarding delay for the at least one data packet. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the computing of the packet forwarding delay includes computing a packet reception rate by the receiver. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the computing of the packet reception rate includes calculating a difference in acknowledged sequence numbers associated with the at least one data packet. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding of the at least one data packet includes: based on detecting a lost packet, determining out-of-window packets to be discarded by the receiver; and retransmitting the out-of-window packets to the receiver before the transmitter times out and retransmits one of the out-of-window packets. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the retransmitting of the out-of-window packets includes suppressing forwarding a duplicate acknowledgement (ACK) received from the receiver to the transmitter. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the retransmitting of the out-of-window packets includes delaying forwarding an acknowledgement (ACK) received from the receiver to the transmitter. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein the delaying of the forwarding of the ACK includes increasing an amount of delayed time according to a number of retransmission attempts. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling of the packet forwarding time includes assigning a weight to each data flow, the weight indicating a number of packets to be forwarded for each data flow. ### Claim 10 An apparatus, comprising: a receiving module to receive at least one data packet from a transmitter connected to a first network; a scheduling module to schedule a packet forwarding time for the at least one data packet; and a forwarding module to forward the at least one data packet to a receiver connected to a second network based on the packet forwarding time such that transmission of the at least one data packet prevents a buffer overflow at the receiver, wherein a number of the at least one data packet to be forwarded to the receiver is determined based on amount of buffers freed-up at the receiver and amount of data packets received at the receiver during a round-trip-delay. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the scheduling module is configured to compute a packet forwarding delay for the at least one data packet to schedule the packet forwarding time. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the scheduling module is configured to compute a packet reception rate by the receiver to compute the packet forwarding delay. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the scheduling module is configured to calculate a difference in acknowledged sequence numbers associated with the at least one data packet to compute the packet reception rate. ### Claim 14 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the forwarding module is configured to: determine out-of-window packets to be discarded by the receiver based on detecting at least one lost packet; and retransmit the out-of-window packets to the receiver before the transmitter times out and retransmits one of the out-of-window packets. ### Claim 15 The apparatus of 10, wherein the forwarding module is configured to enable suppression of lost events without the need for splitting data flow. ### Claim 16 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the receiver comprises a mobile handset. ### Claim 17 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the scheduling module is configured to allocate channel resources in a round robin manner to forward the at least one data packet. ### Claim 18 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the scheduling module is configured to dynamically adjust a size of a buffer advertized by the receiver based on on-going data flows. ### Claim 19 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one data packet comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) package. ### Claim 20 A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising: receiving at least one data packet from a transmitter connected to a first network; scheduling a packet forwarding time for the at least one data packet; and forwarding the at least one data packet to a receiver connected to a second network based on the packet forwarding time such that transmission of the at least one data packet prevents a buffer overflow at the receiver, wherein a number of the at least one data packet to be forwarded to the receiver is determined based on amount of buffers freed-up at the receiver and amount of data packets received at the receiver during a round-trip-delay.