Wireless architecture for a traditional wire-based protocol

WIRELESS ARCHITECTURE FOR A TRADITIONAL WIRE-BASED PROTOCOL

The following description relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to enabling conventional wire-based devices to communicate over wireless and/or wired links.

Wireless networking systems are being used by a large number of people to communicate with users wherever they are (eg, home, office, traveling, ...) at a particular time. To meet the needs of users and improve portability and convenience, wireless communication devices are becoming smaller and more powerful (eg, increased functionality and/or applicability, greater memory capacity). Users have found many uses for wireless communication devices, including cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like. For example, a wireless communication device may include functionality to capture and process images (eg, still images, moving images, video gaming, etc.).

Applications and/or devices operating using very high data rates may have significant power requirements and/or high current levels. Such power requirements and/or current levels are readily available for devices that communicate using wired protocols. However, a wireless communication system may not have the ability to operate using very high data rates. Accordingly, communication in which a user wishes to send and/or receive a transmission may be limited in some circumstances.

Some devices are only operating in a conventional manner in a wired capacity such as, for example, Mobile Display Digital Interface (MDDI). Thus, a user with such a device may not be able to communicate while on the go and may need to spend additional money to obtain a wireless device, which will not always be possible either. In some circumstances, a user may decide to operate two devices, ie, one with wired capacity and one with wireless capacity, to obtain the benefit of both devices. However, maintaining two devices as well as the cost associated therewith may be burdensome to the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To overcome the above and other drawbacks, techniques are provided that enable conventional wireless based protocols to communicate over a wired architecture or a wireless architecture. The disclosed technology provides this flexibility with minimal changes to the wired architecture.

<p>Applications and/or devices operating using very high data rates may have significant power requirements and/or high current levels. Such power requirements and/or current levels are readily available for devices that communicate using wired protocols. However, a wireless communication system may not have the ability to operate using very high data rates. Accordingly, communication in which a user wishes to send and/or receive a transmission may be limited in some circumstances.</p><p>Some devices are only operating in a conventional manner in a wired capacity such as, for example, Mobile Display Digital Interface (MDDI). Thus, a user with such a device may not be able to communicate while on the go and may need to spend additional money to obtain a wireless device, which will not always be possible either. In some situations, a user may decide to operate two devices, ie, one with wired capacity and one with wireless capacity, in order to obtain the benefit of both devices. However, the cost associated therewith as well as maintaining two devices may be burdensome to the user.</p><p>SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To overcome the above and other drawbacks, techniques are provided that enable conventional wireless based protocols to communicate over a wired architecture or a wireless architecture. The disclosed technology provides this flexibility with minimal changes to the wired architecture.</p>

<p>In the following, a simplified summary of one or more embodiments is provided in order to provide a basic understanding of these embodiments. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of all embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.</p><p>In accordance with one or more embodiments and corresponding disclosure, various aspects related to transmitting data conventionally communicated over a wired link over a high-speed wireless link are described. The disclosed embodiments provide wired and/or wireless data communication with minimal changes to existing wired architectures.</p><p>According to one embodiment, a method for determining an operating rate for transmitting data conventionally transmitted by a wired link over a high speed wireless link is provided. The method includes querying a host for an available application data rate and measuring a round trip delay rate. A forward link rate and a reverse link rate are ascertained based on the measured round trip delay rate. An operating rate is calculated based in part on the ascertained forward link rate and reverse link rate. The operating rate may be communicated to a receiver (eg, a mobile device). Calculating the operating rate may include determining a slower rate of a forward link rate or a reverse link rate and designating the lower rate as the operating rate. According to some embodiments, the operation may include comparing a forward link rate, a reverse link rate, an available application data rate of the host, and a maximum capacity of the client to determine the lowest rate, wherein the lowest rate is It is assigned as the operating rate. According to some embodiments, a minimum allowable rate is established, and if the operating rate is less than the minimum allowable rate, the operating rate is adjusted.</p><p>According to another embodiment, a method of configuring a conventional wired device to communicate via a wired protocol or via a wireless protocol is provided. The method includes placing a first portion of the client on a transmitter, placing a second portion of the client on a receiver, and providing wired functionality and wireless functionality to the receiver. The method may include connecting a transmitter to a data source and interfacing a first portion of the client with a host included in the transmitter having a wired link.</p><p>According to another embodiment, an apparatus for communicating wirelessly over a conventional wired link is provided. The apparatus includes a transmitter having a host and a first portion of a client connected by a wired link, and a receiver having a second portion of the client. According to some embodiments, the apparatus may include a query module that determines an operating rate based in part on a rate supported by media access control and retransmission statistics, and an assignment module that assigns communications to a wired protocol or a wireless protocol. can</p><p>According to another embodiment, a mobile device that communicates via a wired link or a wireless link is provided. The mobile device includes means for receiving an operating rate for communication, means for communicating via a wireless link, and means for communicating via a wired link. The mobile device also includes means for selectively determining whether to use a wireless link or a wired link based in part on the received operating rate. According to some embodiments, the means for selectively determining whether to use a wireless link or a wired link based in part on a received operating rate may also determine whether to switch between the wireless link and the wired link. .</p><p>According to another embodiment, a method of communicating in a low-overhead mode over a wired link or a wireless link is provided. The method includes placing forward link data in a buffer, requesting a unidirectional channel time assignment (CTA), and transmitting the forward link data. According to some embodiments, the method may include placing the reverse link data in a buffer, requesting a reverse CTA, transmitting the reverse link data, and communicating the data to a host in a reverse encapsulation packet. can</p><p>According to another embodiment, a method of communicating in a low-latency mode over a wired link or a wireless link is provided. The method includes requesting a CTA on a forward link for m milliseconds and a CTA on a reverse link for n milliseconds, and comparing the CTA of the forward link with the CTA of the reverse link. According to some embodiments, the method includes transmitting reverse link data during a CTA reserved for the reverse, and deriving a duration of a MAC frame.</p><p>According to yet another embodiment, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for contacting a host for an application data rate provided by the host and calculating a round trip delay is provided. The instructions may include determining a forward link rate and a reverse link rate based in part on the calculated round trip delay, and ascertaining an operating rate based in part on the determined forward link rate and reverse link rate. have. According to some embodiments, the instructions include determining the lowest of a forward link rate, a reverse link rate, an application data rate provided by the host, and a maximum capacity of the client. The determined lowest rate may be designated as the operating rate, and this rate may be transmitted to the receiver.</p><p>According to another embodiment, a processor is provided that executes instructions for communicating over a wired link or a wireless link. The instructions include receiving a communication operating rate, and selectively determining whether to communicate over a wired link or a wireless link based in part on the received communication operating rate.</p><p>To the achievement of the foregoing and related ends, one or more embodiments include the features hereinafter described in greater detail and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of one or more embodiments. These aspects are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various embodiments may be employed, and the described embodiments are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.</p>

1 shows a block diagram of a system that allows a conventional wire-based device to communicate wirelessly. 2 shows a system that extends the capabilities of conventional wired configurations to allow communication over a wireless link. 3 shows a system for communication over a wired and/or wireless architecture. 4 shows another embodiment of a system that extends a conventional wired configuration to allow communication over a wireless link. 5 illustrates a system for communicating over a wired link or over a wireless link using a conventional wired device. 6 illustrates an exemplary forward link MDDI data transmission in a low-overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. 7 illustrates an example reverse link MDDI data transmission in a low-overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. 8 illustrates a low-latency mode MDDI connection setup in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. 9 illustrates a method for configuring a conventional wired device to communicate via a wired protocol and/or a wireless protocol. 10 illustrates a method of determining an operating rate in accordance with one or more disclosed embodiments. 11 illustrates a method of communicating in a low overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. 12 illustrates a method of communicating in a low latency mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. 13 shows a conceptual block diagram of a possible configuration of a terminal.

This application is filed on May 26, 2006, and is entitled "WIRELESS ARCHITECTURE FOR A TRADITIONAL WIRE-BASED PROTOCOL," US Provisional Patent Application Serial Nos. 60/809,068; Provisional Patent Application No. 60/833,564, filed July 26, 2006 and entitled "WIRELESS ARCHITECTURE FOR A TRADITIONAL WIRE-BASED PROTOCOL"; and Provisional Patent Application No. 60/833,565, filed July 26, 2006, entitled "WIRELESS ARCHITECTURE FOR A TRADITIONAL WIRE-BASED PROTOCOL," claims priority under 35 USC§119(e), all is incorporated herein by reference.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Various embodiments are now described with reference to the drawings in which like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of one or more embodiments. However, it will be apparent that such embodiment(s) may be practiced without these details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing one or more embodiments.

As used herein, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, such as hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or executable software. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. For example, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device may be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components may execute from various computer-readable media having various data structures stored thereon. A component may contain, for example, one or more data packets (eg, data from one component that interacts with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and/or interacts with another system via a network, such as the Internet, by signal). ) may communicate in the manner of a local and/or remote process according to a signal with

In addition, various embodiments are described in the context of a user device. A user device may also be referred to as a system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile device, remote station, access point, base station, remote terminal, access terminal, handset, user terminal, terminal, user agent or user equipment. A user device may be a cellular phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, wireless local loop (WLL) station, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld device with wireless access capability, or other device connected to a wireless modem. It may be a processing device.

In addition, various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. As used herein, the term "article of manufacture" is intended to include a computer program accessible from any computer readable device, carrier, or medium. For example, a computer readable medium may be a magnetic storage device (eg, a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetic strip...), an optical disk (eg, a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD)). ..), smart cards, and flash memory devices (eg, cards, sticks, key drives...).

In the detailed description that follows, various aspects and embodiments may be disclosed in the context of a mobile display digital interface (MDDI) and/or a medium access control (MAC) layer of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.3. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these novel aspects may be suitable for use with the disclosed embodiments, and that these novel aspects may similarly be applied for use in various other conventional wire-based protocols. Accordingly, any reference to MDDI and/or IEEE 802.15.3 MAC is intended solely to describe these novel aspects, with the understanding that these novel aspects have broad application.

Various embodiments are provided in terms of a system that may include a number of components, modules, and the like. It should be understood and appreciated that various systems may include additional components, modules, etc., and/or may not include all of the components, modules, etc. described in relation to the drawings. Combinations of these approaches may also be used. In addition, various systems may be implemented with a plurality of mobile devices (eg, cellular phones, smart phones, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, global positioning systems, PDAs, and/or other suitable devices). can

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system 100 that allows a conventional wire-based device to communicate wirelessly. The system 100 includes a transmitter 102 in wired and/or wireless communication with a receiver 104 . Transmitter 102 and receiver 104 may be components that communicate in a conventional manner via a wire-based protocol. As will be appreciated, system 100 may include multiple transmitter(s) 102 and receiver(s) 104 , however, for simplicity, one transmits a communication data signal to one receiver 104 . of the transmitter 102 is shown.

The communication sent from the transmitter 102 to the receiver 104 is referred to as the forward link, and the communication sent from the receiver 104 to the transmitter 102 is referred to as the reverse link. The transmitter 102 may be connected to a data source 106 (eg, storage, memory, etc.), and the receiver 104 may be connected to an interface device 108 , such as a display.

The system 100 may operate in at least two modes of operation: a low overhead mode and/or a low latency mode. The low overhead mode allows data to be transmitted over the air (e.g., wirelessly) by requesting a channel assignment time(s), which is the time at which data is transmitted from either direction (either from a transmitter to a receiver or from a receiver to a transmitter). Optimize the packet. In the low latency mode, the channel allocation time(s) may be determined based on knowledge of the data contained in both the forward link and the reverse link.

Transmitter 102 may be configured to ascertain a forward link rate and a reverse link rate based on various criteria (eg, round trip delay measurements). Transmitter 102 may send at least one Reverse Link Encapsulation Packet for every frame. Reverse Link Encapsulation Packets are used to accommodate the transmission of reverse packets over a transport link to create a reverse link.

Receiver 104 may be configured to receive and/or transmit data communications via wireless and/or wired functionality. The determination of the function to use depends on the type of data (eg voice, text, image, ...), the conventional method of communicating that data (eg wired link or wireless link), the type of file or packet to be transmitted. It may be based on a variety of criteria including size as well as other criteria related to its data, transmitter and/or receiver. Transmitter 102 can communicate data without awareness of how receiver 104 is receiving the data (eg, wired or wireless).

2 shows a system 200 that extends the capabilities of a conventional wired configuration to allow communication over a wireless link. System 200 includes a transmitter 202 that communicates with a receiver 204 over a forward link. Receiver 204 communicates with transmitter 202 over a reverse link. While transmitter 202 and receiver 204 may be devices that generally communicate via wired protocols, system 200 allows such devices to communicate via wired protocols and/or wireless protocols such as high-speed wireless links. do. The system 200 may include multiple transmitter(s) 202 and receiver(s) 204 , but for simplicity, one transmitter 202 that transmits a communication data signal to one receiver 204 . ) is shown.

The transmitter 202 can include a host 206 , part of a client (C1 ) 208 and a communication component 210 . Host 206 may be, for example, an MDDI host. In some embodiments, the host 206 may be a component that is separate from the transmitter 202 and connected to the transmitter 202 via a wired link. A portion of the client (C1) 208 is maintained on or communicates with the host 206 for clock synchronization. The client (C1) 208 may be connected to the host 206 via, for example, a conventional wired link (eg, an MDDI link). The host 206 may be configured to send or forward packets of data to the client C1 208 . These packets may be communicated to the receiver 204 via a communication component 210 , which may include a modem, such as an ultra-wideband (UWB) modem. Some packets (eg, MDDI Round Trip Delay Measurement Packet) are processed by client C1 208 and delivered to receiver 204 . Other packets (eg, filler packet) will be dropped by the client C1 208 and will not be communicated to the receiver 204 . That is, some packets will not be communicated on either the forward radio link or the reverse radio link. For example, the filler packet manages the timing between the transmitter 202 and the receiver 204 . These packets may be generated by either the transmitter 202 or the receiver 204 via the respective client portion.

The receiver 204 can include an interface device 212 (eg, a display), a portion of a client C2 214 , and a communication component 216 . In some embodiments, device 212 may be a component separate from receiver 204 and connected to receiver 204 via, for example, a wired link. A client (C2) 214 may be connected to the device 212 via a wired link. A client (C2) 214 may be configured to process packets received from the transmitter 202 . The receiver 204 may receive a communication from the transmitter 202 via a communication component 216 , which may include, for example, a UWB modem.

System 200 may be configured to operate in one of two modes of operation. These modes include a low overhead mode and a low latency mode. In the low overhead mode, the client (C1) 208 receives the data to be transmitted, eg, excluding fill packets and round trip delay packets, to be included in the communication component 210 (eg, UWB modem). placed in a buffer that can be The communication component 210 can periodically request a one-way channel time assignment (CTA) from the transmitter 202 to the receiver 204 based on the size of its buffer, eg, via a UWB MAC. In the reverse (eg, reverse link), client (C2) 214 buffers the reverse link data it wishes to transmit, eg, excluding filler packets, associated with communication component 216 (eg, UWB modem). can be placed in In the reverse direction, communication component 216 may request a reverse CTA.

For the low latency mode, during the initialization phase, the communication component 210 (eg, UWB modem) may request a CTA for m milliseconds in the forward direction and a CTA for n milliseconds in the reverse direction. The predicted ratio of traffic in the forward and reverse directions is m:n, where m seconds is the forward link transmission rate R_f_-_mddi is the corresponding duration. T is the superframe duration,

(m+n) &lt; T_CTAP &lt; T

It is determined by the latency limit of the application.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , shown is a system 300 that communicates via wired and/or wireless architectures. System 300 includes a transmitter 302 and a receiver 304 that communicate over a forward link (from a transmitter 302) and/or a reverse link (from a receiver 304). Communication over the forward link and/or reverse link may be done over a wired protocol and/or a wireless protocol depending on the particular circumstances (eg, data to be transmitted, data rate, communication link quality, state of each device, ...). can As will be appreciated, system 300 may include multiple transmitter(s) 302 and receiver(s) 304 , but for simplicity, one transmitting a communication data signal to one receiver 304 . of the transmitter 302 is shown.

The transmitter 302 can include a host component 306 and a communication component 310 connected to a client (C1) component 308 . The receiver 304 can include a device 312 and a communication component 316 connected to a client (C2) component 314 . Client (C1) component 308 and client (C2) component 314 are respective parts of one client.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that transmitter 302 and/or receiver 304 may include additional components. For example, transmitter 302 may include an encoder (not shown) that may modulate and/or encode a signal according to an appropriate wireless communication protocol, and then transmit the signal to receiver 304 . . In some embodiments, the encoder component may be a voice coder (vocoder) or another type of encoder that converts an analog waveform to a digital signal using a voice analyzer. Suitable wireless communication protocols include orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexed access (OFDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), global positioning system (GSM), high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), and the like.

Receiver 304 may include a decoder component (not shown) capable of decoding a received signal and/or data packets within the signal for processing. Upon successful decoding of the data packet, an acknowledgment component (not shown) may be sent to the transmitter 302 to notify the transmitter 302 that the data packet has been received and decoded and thus does not need to be retransmitted. An acknowledgment may be generated indicating successful decoding of the packet.

The host component 306 can include an inquiry module 318 and a measurement module 320 . The query module 318 may be configured to query a medium access control (MAC) with a host for an application data rate that the medium access control (MAC) provides. For wireless communication, the operating rate may depend on the rate of the wireless link. The measurement module 320 may be configured to determine a forward link rate and a reverse link rate, eg, based on round trip delay measurements, which may be specified in a wireless protocol. In some embodiments, the radio operating rate may be determined by two rates (forward link rate and reverse link rate), the maximum capacity of the host 306 and the maximum capacity of the client (Cl; 308). Minimum allowable rate R_min will exist If the measured operating rate is less than this minimum allowed rate, the operating rate is to be adjusted by the transmitter 302 and/or the receiver 304 via the respective component (eg, the communication component 310 and/or 316 ). can The transmitter 302 can notify the receiver 304 of the rate at which communications will be processed.

The client (C2) component 314 can include a notifier module 322 that can be configured to notify the transmitter 302 of an application data rate that the MAC is providing. Such notification may be based on an inquiry received from the transmitter 302 (eg, an inquiry sent by the inquiry module 318 ). For the Reverse Link Packet, the notifier module 322 may specify the number of bytes to be transmitted on the reverse link in the current frame, as required by the receiver 304 . In addition, the client C2 component is an allocator module, which may be configured to assign a communication to a wired protocol or a wireless protocol according to various parameters related to communication (eg, communication type, communication rate, transmitter, receiver, etc.) (324) may be included.

The communication component 316 can include a wired module 326 and a wireless module 328 . The wired module 326 can be configured to provide a wired function, and the wireless module 328 can be configured to provide a wireless function. It can be determined whether to communicate wirelessly using the wireless module 328 or to communicate using the wired module 326 . This determination may be based on the operating rate, the type of data to be transmitted (eg, voice, text, image, ...), the size of the data or file to be transmitted, the data being communicated in a conventional manner over a wired link or a wireless link. may be based on various factors including whether or not Wired module 326 and/or wireless module 328 switches over if a change is made during communication from one module to another (eg, wireless to wired, wired to wireless). In order not to lose communication due to a problem, it may include a buffer to store the content.

Information as to whether the receiver 304 is communicating over a wired link or a wireless link need not be communicated to the transmitter 302 . Transmitter 302 functions in substantially the same manner regardless of the method of communication (wired or wireless).

According to some embodiments, the transmitter 302 may include a component configured to fragment a subframe (not shown), and the receiver 304 may include a component configured to recombine the subframe (not shown). may include For example, the maximum length of an MDDI subframe may be about 65,536 bytes, but is typically smaller. The maximum size of an 802.15.3 MAC frame may be about 4,096 or 8,192 bytes if the underlying rate is about 480 Mbps. This size may be about 2,048 bytes if the basic rate is about 200 Mbps. Accordingly, a subframe may need to be fragmented at the transmitter 302 and recombined at the receiver 304 to accommodate the size of the frame. This fragmentation and recombination may be performed by respective communication components 310 and 316 , or other components associated with transmitter 302 and receiver 304 .

4 shows another embodiment of a system 400 that extends a conventional wired configuration to allow communication over a wireless link. System 400 can include a transmitter 402 that includes a host 406 , a portion of a client C1 408 , and a communication component 410 . System 400 can also include a receiver 404 that includes a device 412 , a portion of a client (C2) 414 , and a communication component 416 . Transmitter 402 communicates with receiver 404 on a forward link, and receiver 404 communicates with transmitter 402 on a reverse link. As described above with respect to the figures, the system 400 may include multiple transmitter(s) 402 and receiver(s) 404 , although for simplicity, a communication data signal is converted into a single receiver 404 ), one transmitter 402 is shown.

The system 400 can include a memory 418 operatively coupled to a receiver 404 . Memory 418 is configured to store data rates for packets and/or packet types (eg, application data rates provided by MAC, operating rates for wireless links, ...), modes of operation for packets and/or packet types. , and/or other parameters related to transmitting data via a wireless protocol, a wired protocol, or a combination of these protocols. For example, a wired protocol may be used for communication, and a decision may be made to switch to a wireless protocol without interruption or interruption during communication, and vice versa.

Processor 420 is operatively connected to a receiver (and/or memory 418 ) to facilitate analysis of information related to ascertaining whether a particular communication will be transmitted over a wired protocol or a wireless protocol. can do. The processor 420 includes a processor dedicated to analyzing and/or generating information communicated to the receiver 404 , a processor controlling one or more components of the system 400 , and/or information received by the receiver 404 . It may be a processor that does both analyzing and generating , and controlling one or more components of system 400 .

Memory 418 stores protocols related to data communication rates, operating rates, actions to be taken to control communication between receiver 404 and transmitter 402, etc., so that system 400 stores the stored protocols and/or algorithms can be used to achieve improved communication within a wireless network as described herein. It should be appreciated that the data storage (eg, memory) component described herein may be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. By way of example and not limitation, non-volatile memory may include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory may include random access memory (RAM) that acts as external cache memory. By way of example and not limitation, RAM may include synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double dara rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronized DRAM (SLDRAM), and DRRAM. (direct Rambus RAM) can be used in various forms. Memory 418 of the disclosed embodiment is intended to include, but is not limited to, such memory or any other suitable type of memory.

5 shows a system 500 for communicating with a conventional wired device over a wired link or a wireless link. System 500 is represented as functional blocks, which can be functional blocks that represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or combination thereof (eg, firmware). System 500 includes a receiver 502 that can be configured to receive an operating rate for communication. This operating rate may be received, for example, from a transmitter or a transmitter host. The operating rate may set up or establish the communication rate in both the forward and reverse directions. System 500 also includes a wireless communicator 504 that may be configured to send and/or receive communications via a wireless protocol. Wired communicator 506 may be configured to send and/or receive communications via a wired protocol.

In the forward and/or reverse direction, there may be packet extensions and/or new packets. For example, forward MDDI transmitter information may be added to the packet. The packet extension unit may provide MDDI transmitter-side information to an MDDI client on the receiver. This information may include the rate at which the MDDI host and client would have operated on the transmitter side. In the reverse direction, the extension to the Client Capability Packet may include about 4 bytes for the MDDI Receiver MAC information and about 2 bytes for the MDDI Receiver Client Information, although other extensions are possible.

Also included in system 500 is a determiner that selectively determines whether to use a wireless communicator to communicate via a wireless protocol or whether to use a wired communicator to communicate via a wired protocol. This determination may optionally be made based on various parameters, such as the rate of communication operation. In addition, other parameters may be analyzed for that determination. For example, the manner in which a particular communication was transmitted and/or received in a conventional manner (eg, historical analysis), the type of communication (eg, voice, image, text, ...), as well as the communication, transmitter , and/or other parameters related to the receiver.

6 illustrates an exemplary forward link MDDI data transmission 600 in a low-overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments described herein. One type of mode in which the MDDI transmitter 602 transmits data to the MDDI receiver 604 may be a low overhead mode. In this mode, packets transmitted over the air are optimized for channel allocation time, which is the time it takes for data to be transmitted from one direction (eg, forward or reverse). The MDDI transmitter 602 may include part of the client (C1) 606 and the MDDI receiver 604 may include part of the client processing (C2; 608).

The MDDI client (C1) 606 may place the data to be transmitted in, for example, a buffer on the UWB modem. The data to be transmitted will exclude unnecessary packets such as, for example, Fill Packets and Round Trip Delay Packets. The MDDI data is sent to the transmitter MAC 610 , as indicated at 612 . The transmitter 610 (or UWB MAC) may periodically or continuously request at least one CTA from the MDDI transmitter 602 to the MDDI receiver 604 , eg, based on the size of the buffer.

614 In , the transmitter MAC 610 may request (eg, periodically or continuously) a forward link CTA from a piconet (PNC) MAC 616 . At 618 , the PNC MAC 616 may respond to the transmitter MAC 610 with a channel time response code. This response code may indicate whether the data was successfully communicated. After a successful channel time response code is received, the transmitter MAC 610 may send the MDDI data to the receiver MAC 620 , as indicated at 622 .

7 illustrates an exemplary reverse link MDDI data transfer 700 in a low-overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments described herein. The MDDI receiver 702 may initiate communication destined for the MDDI transmitter 704 over the reverse link. The MDDI receiver 702 may include a portion of a client (C2) 706 and the MDDI receiver 704 may include a portion of a client (C1) 708 .

712 As shown in , the MDDI receiver 702 may send MDDI data to the receiver MAC 710 . At 716 , the receiver MAC 710 may request a reverse link CTA from the PNC MAC 714 . This request may correspond to data to be transmitted in the reverse direction. At 718 , the PNC MAC 714 may respond with a channel time response code. At 720 , the receiver MAC 710 may send the MDDI data in the CTA to the transmitter MAC 722 . As shown at 724 , the transmitter MAC 722 may transmit or provide MDDI data to the client C1 at 724 substantially concurrently with or prior to receiving the MDDI data from the receiver MAC 710 . 728 and 730 , the MDDI sender host 726 may transmit and/or receive at least one reverse link capsule every frame. Reverse link data may be transmitted in advance without waiting for data requests. The client can specify the number of bytes that need to be transmitted over the reverse link in the current frame. Host 726 may allocate this request in response to the Reverse Link Encapsulation Packet.

8 illustrates a low-latency mode MDDI connection setup 800 in accordance with various embodiments described herein. In the low-latency mode, the channel allocation time can be ascertained based on interference derived from data contained in packets in both the forward and reverse directions. The MDDI transmitter 802 may include part of a client (C1) 806 and a host 804 . During the initialization phase, at 810 , the UWB modem on transmitter 802 may send a MAC query to transmitter MAC 808 . A MAC query is a query sent to discover rates supported by MAC and retransmission statistics. At 812 , the sender MAC 808 may respond to the query. This response may be a MAC response indicating the rate supported by the MAC retransmission statistics.

Transmitter 802 requests CTA setup 814 for m milliseconds in the forward direction and CTA for n milliseconds in the reverse link. The predicted ratio of traffic in the forward and reverse directions will be m:n. At 816 , a channel time request (CTRq) is sent to the PNC Mac 818 . The channel time response code may be sent in the reverse direction, shown at 820 , and sent in the forward direction, shown at 822 , to be sent to the receiver MAC 824 . As shown at 826 , the MDDI transmitter 802 may initiate an MDDI transmission.

R_f_-_mddi The duration corresponding to the MDDI forward link transmission rate of m is m seconds, and if T is the super frame duration determined by the latency limit of this application,

m+n &lt; T_CTAP &lt; T

is applied

In the low latency mode, reverse link data may be transmitted during a reserved CTA in the reverse direction. Depending on the arrival time of the reverse link data related to the MAC super frame, the transmission is:

<img file="KR20100046069A_D0001.tif" />

It may have a maximum latency expressed as , where k is the average number of retransmissions experienced by the MAC frame. N is the size of the reverse link packet to be transmitted, and n is the reverse link CTA duration in each super frame. R₁ is the physical layer transmission rate of MDDI data (MAC payload). R₂ is the physical layer transmission rate of the PHY, MAC header and preamble. H is MAC + the size of the PHY header + the size of the preamble. SIFS is the short inter-frame interval duration. RIFS is the retransmission inter-frame interval duration. T_ACK is the transmission duration of the ACK. T is the super frame duration. For the sake of explanation, it is assumed that the ACK policy is Imm-ACK. Forward Link Packet T_fl The latency of may be determined accordingly. Given application latency constraints in the forward link and reverse link, the time duration of the MAC frame can be derived accordingly. For example, various algorithms, methods and/or techniques may be used to derive the time duration of the MAC frame and/or the latency of the forward link packet.

In view of the example systems described above, methods that may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments described herein will be more clearly appreciated with reference to the drawings of FIGS. 9-12 . For simplicity, although these methods are shown and described as a series of operations (or functional blocks), the methods are not limited to the order of operations, according to which some operations may occur in a different order, and/or It should be understood and recognized that operations other than those shown and described herein may occur concurrently. Also, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement the following method. It should be appreciated that the various operations may be implemented by software, hardware, combinations thereof, or any other suitable means (eg, device, system, process, component) for performing a function associated with the operations. do. It should also be appreciated that these acts are merely illustrative of the specific aspects presented herein, and may be described by fewer and/or greater numbers of acts. Alternatively, those skilled in the art will recognize and understand that the method may be depicted as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram.

Referring now to FIG. 9 , shown is a method 900 of configuring a conventional wired device to communicate via a wired protocol and/or a wireless protocol. At 902 , a first portion of the client is deployed on the MDDI transmitter. The MDDI transmitter may be wireless and may be connected to a data source. The MDDI transmitter may also comprise an MDDI host connected to or interfaced to the client portion by, for example, a conventional wired MDDI link.

904 In , a second portion of the client is placed on an MDDI receiver, which may be a wireless MDDI receiver. The MDDI receiver may be connected to a device that may be, for example, a display. The part of the client deployed on the MDDI transmitter and the part of the client deployed on the MDDI receiver are separate parts of the same client. It should be appreciated that each of the portions of the client may be portions implemented by a processor, software, or a combination thereof (eg, firmware).

906 , both wired and wireless functions are provided. This functionality is incorporated on the MDDI receiver, so that the MDDI receiver can communicate via a wired function, a wireless function, or both.

By way of example and not limitation, the MDDI receiver may be a mobile device that may receive a communication such as a movie displayed on a CRT screen or display. The mobile device may also be connected to a wall-mounted display to display a movie on the wall so that the image can be viewed. If the mobile device is versatile, it can broadcast a movie on a display and receive or transmit voice communications other than voice communications related to the movie at substantially the same time. Accordingly, the user of the mobile device may perform communications other than movies. One example where this approach may be used is when the user's children are watching a movie and the user answers the phone and wants to stay away. Thus, the movie may be displayed via the wired function, and substantially at the same time the user may communicate via the wireless function.

10 illustrates a method 1000 of determining an operating rate in accordance with one or more disclosed embodiments. For example, in wireless MDDI, the MDDI operating rate depends in part on the rate of the wireless link. The method 1000 for determining an operating rate begins at 1002 where a host MAC is queried for an available application data rate (eg, an application data rate provided by the MAC). The query may be requested by the MDDI host, for example.

1004 , the round trip delay is measured. At 1006 , a round trip delay measurement may be used to determine or ascertain a forward link rate and a reverse link rate. According to some embodiments, the round trip delay measurement may be specified in the wired MDDI protocol that should be used.

1008 The operating rate is calculated in . The operating rate can be calculated, in part, by comparing the forward link rate and the reverse link rate and determining the minimum of the two rates. The minimum of these two rates may be designated as the operating rate. In some embodiments, the minimum of these two rates (forward link rate and reverse link rate) may additionally be compared to both the maximum capacity of the MDDI host and the maximum capacity of the MDDI client C1. A minimum or minimum rate based on this comparison is assigned as the operating rate.

Minimum allowable rate R that can be established or determined based on communication parameters_min this will exist If the computed operating rate is lower than its minimum allowable rate, adjustments may be made to increase the rate. At 1010 , the operating rate is communicated or transmitted to a receiver (eg, an MDDI receiver) to inform the receiver of the rate at which the communication will proceed.

In the method 1000 described above, for example, the transmitter may query the host MAC via an inquiry module. The transmitter may additionally measure the round trip delay, determine the forward and reverse link rates, and calculate the operating rate using the measurement module. The transmitter may also transmit its operating rate to the receiver using a communication component. It is to be understood that the foregoing is for illustrative purposes only, and that other components may be utilized in connection with one or more embodiments provided herein.

Referring now to FIG. 11 , illustrated is a method 1100 of communicating in a low overhead mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. The forward link is shown on the left side of the figure and the reverse link is shown on the right side of the figure.

1102 In , forward link data is placed in a buffer. Unnecessary data such as fill packets and/or round trip delay packets may be excluded from the data placed in the buffer. This data may be placed in a buffer, for example, by the MDDI client C1 on the MDDI transmitter. At 1104 , a unidirectional CTA is requested (eg, periodically or continuously). The UWB MAC may request this information from the MDDI sender to the receiver based on, for example, the size of the buffer. At 1106 , forward link data may be transmitted.

In the reverse direction, the host sends at least one reverse link capsule every frame. A client (eg, a receiver) may specify the number of bytes that should be transmitted on the reverse link in the current frame. A host (eg, a sender) may assign this request to a Reverse Link Encapsulation Packet. At 1108, the reverse link data to be transmitted is placed in a buffer, for example, by the MDDI client C2. The buffer may be located on the UWB modem of the MDDI receiver. At 1110 , the request for reverse link CTA is sent by, for example, a UWB modem on the MDDI receiver side. This request may be for a CTA in the reverse direction corresponding to the data to be transmitted on the reverse link.

1112 In , the MDDI client (C2) on the receiver may send reverse link data to the client (C1) on the transmitter. As shown, at 1114 , the MDDI client C1 on the sender sends the data it has to the MDDI host in a reverse encapsulation packet.

12 illustrates a method 1200 of communicating in a low latency mode in accordance with various embodiments provided herein. The forward link is shown on the left side of the figure, and the reverse link is shown on the right side of the figure. During the initialization phase in low latency mode, at 1202 , for example, the UWB modem on the transmitter requests a CTA for m milliseconds in the forward direction. At 1204 , the CTA request is sent in the reverse direction for n milliseconds. At 1206, a comparison of the forward CTA and the reverse CTA received in response to the request is made. The predicted ratio of traffic in the forward and reverse directions is m:n. m milliseconds is R_f-mddi is the duration corresponding to the MDDI forward link transmission rate of

(m+n) &lt; T_CTAP &lt; T

, and T is the super frame duration, which may be determined by the latency limit of the application.

In the reverse direction during low latency mode, at 1208 , reverse link data is transmitted during a reserved CTA in the reverse direction. At 1210 , a time duration of a MAC frame may be derived from application restrictions in the forward link and reverse link. In the following equation, k is the average number of retransmissions experienced by the MAC frame. N is the size of the reverse link packet to be transmitted, and n is the reverse link CTA duration in each super frame. R₁ is the physical layer transmission rate of MDDI data (MAC payload). R₂ is the physical layer transmission rate of the PHY, MAC header and preamble. H is the size of the MAC, the size of the PHY header, and the size of the preamble. SIFS is the short inter-frame interval duration. RIFS is the retransmission inter-frame interval duration. T_ACK is the transmission duration of the ACK, and T is the super frame duration. For the sake of explanation, it is assumed that the ACK policy is Imm-ACK. Latency T of forward link packets_fl may be determined using various algorithms, methods, and/or techniques. Depending on the arrival time of the reverse link data related to the MAC super frame, the transmission is:

<img file="KR20100046069A_D0002.tif" />

It may have a maximum latency expressed as .

Referring now to FIG. 13 , a conceptual block diagram of a possible configuration of a terminal 1300 is shown. As those skilled in the art will recognize, the exact configuration of terminal 1300 may vary depending on the particular application and overall design constraints. A processor 1302 may implement the systems and methods described herein.

The terminal 1300 may be implemented with a front-end transceiver 1304 coupled to an antenna 1306 . A baseband processor 1308 can be coupled to the transceiver 1304 . The baseband processor 1308 may be implemented in a software-based architecture or other type of architecture. The microprocessor may be used as a platform for executing software programs that provide control and overall system management functions, among other functions. A digital signal processor (DSP) may be implemented with an embedded communications software layer that executes application specific algorithms to reduce the processing required on a microprocessor. DSPs may be used to provide various signal processing functions such as pilot signal acquisition, time synchronization, frequency tracking, spread spectrum processing, modulation and demodulation functions, and forward error correction.

Terminal 1300 can also include various user interfaces 1310 coupled to baseband processor 1308 . User interface 1310 may include a keypad, mouse, touch screen, display, ringer, vibrator, audio speaker, microphone, camera, and/or other input/output device.

The baseband processor 1308 includes a processor 1302 . In a software-based implementation of the baseband processor 1308 , the processor 1302 may be a software program running on a microprocessor. However, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the processor 1302 is not limited to this embodiment, and can perform any of the known methods, including hardware configurations, software configurations, or combinations thereof, capable of performing the various functions described herein. It may be implemented by means. The processor 1302 can be coupled to the memory 1312 for data storage.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. If the systems and/or methods are implemented in software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, they may be stored in a machine-readable medium, such as a storage component. A code segment may represent a procedure, function, subprogram, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, argument parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted using any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, and the like.

The foregoing description includes examples of one or more embodiments. It is, of course, impossible to describe every possible combination of components or methods for purposes of describing the above-described embodiments, but those skilled in the art will recognize that many further combinations and variations of the various embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the described embodiments are intended to embrace all such variations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Also, where the term "comprising" is used in the specification or claims, the term "comprising It is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to ".