Receiver Window Status Acknowledgement in Data Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data communication protocols, such as TCP and XTP, face inefficiencies in reporting receiver window status, leading to repeated transmissions, buffer overflow issues, and misunderstandings between transmitters and receivers due to inadequate specification of transmission window behavior, data reneging, cumulative acknowledgement effects, and inefficient use of sequence numbers for selective acknowledgements.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves placing the cumulative sequence number first in the acknowledgement report, followed by optional fields for missing and received span pairs, allowing for more efficient reporting of receiver window status by reducing the number of octets required to specify span lengths and enabling better control over buffer usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If selective acknowledgement (SACK) is used to report received data spans, then retransmission efficiency is improved, but the transmission window behavior becomes ambiguous and buffer management becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the receiver window status into distinct components: cumulative sequence number, missing span pairs, and received span pairs. This segmentation allows each component to be handled independently with specific field formats, reducing the complexity of overall buffer management while maintaining efficient selective acknowledgement functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning specific field formats and semantics to different parts of the acknowledgement report. Each field (cumulative sequence number, missing spans, received spans) has a defined structure and interpretation rules, allowing the receiver to process each segment with appropriate buffer management strategies rather than handling the entire window status uniformly.
2Reliability
If the receiver holds on to all data till the hole is repaired, then data completeness is ensured, but out of buffer situations occur at the receiver
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables preliminary action by allowing the receiver to immediately send selective acknowledgements for received data spans without waiting for the entire window to be received or for hole repair. This preliminary reporting allows the transmitter to begin retransmitting missing data while the receiver can forward already-received data, preventing buffer overflow while ensuring eventual data completeness.
3Measurement precision
If actual sequence numbers are used in SACK to report received spans, then accuracy is improved, but the control protocol consumes more space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the span reporting into structured fields with defined formats. By organizing sequence number information into specific field formats (cumulative sequence number field, missing span pairs field, received span pairs field), the protocol achieves precise span reporting while optimizing the use of control protocol space through systematic field organization and validation rules.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides a better solution to the problem of reporting to the transmitter the data received by a receiver in the field of data communications. This is achieved by reporting the status of the receivers' window. The cumulative sequence number is placed in the first field of the acknowledgement report as per the present invention. As per prior negotiation, the optional field of missing and received span pairs is placed after that. The first missing span length occurs after that. The next received span length is placed after that. Thereafter, the next missing span length and the received span lengths are placed one after the other. The last received data span is acknowledged in the last field. One optional field can occur either before or after this layout to represent the receiver open window status.