Apparatus, system and method of controlling data flow over a communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10778818-B2
Application number	US-201816231790-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 24, 2018
Priority date	Nov 22, 2012
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of controlling data flow over a communication network. For example, an apparatus may include a communication unit to communicate between first and second devices a transfer response, the transfer response in response to a transfer request, the transfer response including a transfer pending status indicating data is pending to be received at the second device, the communication unit is to communicate the transfer response regardless of whether a retry indicator of the transfer request represents a first request for transfer or a retried request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) device of a media-agnostic connectivity PAL, the apparatus comprising:
means for processing a transfer request from a USB PAL host, the transfer request to initiate transfer of data from a USB endpoint of a USB device to the USB PAL host, the transfer request comprising a request identifier (ID); and
means for causing the USB PAL device to, when data receipt from the USB device is delayed, transmit a transfer response with no data payload to the USB PAL host, the transfer response comprising a transfer pending status code and a same request ID as the request ID in the transfer request, the transfer pending status code configured to indicate to the USB PAL host that the data is delayed and pending to be received from the USB device and that the USB PAL host is to reset a retransmission counter for retransmission of the transfer request.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a retry bit in the transfer request is set to zero, and the request ID in the transfer request is the same as a request ID in a previous transfer request.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL device to transmit the transfer response comprising the transfer pending status code, when a retry bit in the transfer request is set to zero.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL device to transmit a subsequent transfer response comprising a data payload and an acknowledgement request (ARQ) bit comprising a value to request acknowledgement of the subsequent transfer response.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL device to retransmit the subsequent transfer response comprising a retry bit set to a value indicating retransmission of the subsequent transfer response.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL device to retransmit the subsequent transfer response, when an acknowledgement is not received from the USB PAL host within a predefined time period from transmission of the subsequent transfer response.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL device to repeat retransmitting the subsequent transfer response up to a predefined number of times.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the media-agnostic connectivity PAL is configured to enable media-agnostic connectivity between a USB host and one or more USB devices.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising means for controlling a PAL connection, over the media-agnostic connectivity PAL, between the USB PAL host and the USB PAL device, wherein the media-agnostic connectivity PAL is above a data linklayer.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a radio to receive the transfer request, and to transmit the transfer response over a wireless communication medium.

11. An apparatus for a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) host of a media-agnostic connectivity PAL, the apparatus comprising:
means for causing the USB PAL host to transmit a first transfer request to a USB PAL device, the first transfer request to initiate transfer of data from a USB endpoint of a USB device to the USB PAL host, the first transfer request comprising a request identifier (ID);
means for causing the USB PAL host to transmit to the USB PAL device a second transfer request comprising a same request ID as the request ID in the first transfer request, when no transfer response is received from the USB PAL device after a first predefined time period; and
means for causing the USB PAL host to, following receipt of a transfer response from the USB PAL device comprising the same request ID as the request ID in the first transfer request, and a transfer pending status code indicating that the data is delayed and pending to be received from the USB device, reset a retransmission counter, and wait a second predefined time period before an attempt to retransmit the second transfer request.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL host to set a retry bit in the second transfer request to “0”.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL host to set a retry bit in a transmitted transfer request to “1”, when the transmitted transfer request is identical to a previously transmitted transfer request.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising means for causing the USB PAL host to transmit a transfer acknowledgement to acknowledge receipt of a transfer response comprising an acknowledgement request (ARQ) bit comprising a value to indicate acknowledgement is requested.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the second predefined time period comprises a Long Keep Alive period.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the media-agnostic connectivity PAL is configured to enable media-agnostic connectivity between a USB host and one or more USB devices.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising means for controlling a PAL connection, over the media-agnostic connectivity PAL, between the USB PAL host and the USB PAL device, wherein the media-agnostic connectivity PAL is above a data linklayer.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising a radio to transmit the first and second transfer requests, and to receive the transfer response over a wireless communication medium.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising a Network interface to communicate the first and second transfer requests and the transfer response.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Sadeghi Bahareh
• Levy Elad
• Kedem Oren
• Wielicki Rafal
• Dabek Marek

Classifications

• H04L69/324 Primary

  in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC · CPC title

• H04L69/40 Primary

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L69/28

  Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols · CPC title

• H04L1/1812

  Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ] · CPC title