Wireless Transmitter Polling Mechanism for Buffer Status

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Solution Overview

Problem

In wireless communications systems, particularly in UMTS, transmitters face errors and inefficiencies when all Protocol Data Units (PDUs) in the buffer are discarded before acknowledgment, leading to unsuccessful polling and unnecessary polls, which reduces transmission efficiency and wastes system resources.

Innovation Solution

The method involves determining whether there are PDUs that have been transmitted but not discarded and not yet acknowledged, and only initiating a polling procedure if such PDUs exist, thereby avoiding the selection of discarded PDUs for polling and preventing unnecessary polls.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the transmitter continuously polls the receiver for status reports, then data robustness is improved, but transmission efficiency deteriorates due to unnecessary polls when all PDUs are discarded

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata robustnessVSAvoidtransmission efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The transmitter checks whether any PDU remains in the buffer before initiating a poll. This preliminary check prevents the transmitter from sending polls when all PDUs have been discarded, thereby avoiding unnecessary transmissions and improving overall transmission efficiency while maintaining data robustness through selective polling

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If the transmitter selects a PDU for polling from the buffer, then the polling procedure is executed successfully, but an error occurs when all PDUs are discarded before acknowledgment

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepolling procedure executionVSAvoidpolling success rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The transmitter performs a preliminary check to determine whether any PDU remains in the buffer before attempting to select a PDU for polling. This preliminary anti-action prevents the error condition where the transmitter tries to select a PDU from an empty buffer, ensuring reliable polling procedure execution by avoiding invalid operations

Inventive Principle:
Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

Data Source

PatentEP1718017B2Method and apparatus for polling transmission status in a wireless communication system
Publication Date: 2020.10.28 INNOVATIVE SONIC LTD
  • EP1718017B2 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP1718017B2 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP1718017B2 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A method for polling transmission status in a wireless communications system includes determining whether a buffer of a transmitter contains at least a packet that has been transmitted, has not been discarded, and has not yet been acknowledged when there is no packet scheduled for transmission or retransmission while a polling procedure is triggered and is not prohibited, selecting a packet in order to transmit a poll, and scheduling the selected packet for retransmission.