Retransmission scheme for communication systems

A transmitter, comprising:

• a network interface layer adapted to receive a payload data stream;
• a container controller adapted to group data units of the payload data stream into containers, where an original container includes one or more data units eligible for retransmission and one or more data units non-eligible for retransmission;
• a data transmission controller adapted to group the containers into data transmission units, where a data transmission unit includes the original container;
• a transmission controller that mixes un-transmitted data transmission units with data transmission units to be retransmitted, thereby generating a transmission data stream suitable for transmission over a transmission medium;
• and
• a retransmission controller adapted to analyze a retransmission request and determine which eligible data units stored in the retransmission buffer are to be re-transmitted over the transmission medium, and further configured to pack both a data unit eligible for retransmission from the original container and a new data unit not previously transmitted into a payload section of a retransmission container for transmission over the transmission medium.

A communication system, comprising:

• a transmitter adapted to transmit data transmission units over a transmission medium, the data transmission units including one or more containers associated with respective container identifiers, and the containers including data units eligible for retransmission and data units non-eligible for retransmission;
• a receiver adapted to receive the data transmission units and transmit a retransmission request that specifies uncorrectable data received in at least one of the containers;
• where the transmitter further comprises:
• a retransmission controller adapted to generate a retransmission container in response to the retransmission request, where the retransmission container includes at least one previously transmitted data unit eligible for retransmission from a container along with new data instead of at least one previously transmitted data unit non-eligible for retransmission from the container.

A method, comprising:

• packing a data unit eligible for retransmission and a data unit non-eligible for retransmission into a payload section of an original container;
• providing a header section for the original container and transmitting the original container and header section to a receiver;
• after the original container has been transmitted, receiving a request for retransmission of the original container from the receiver;
• packing the data unit eligible for retransmission and a new data unit into a payload section of a retransmission container;
• and
• providing a retransmission header section for the retransmission container and transmitting the retransmission container and retransmission header section to the receiver in response to the request for retransmission.