Inverse multiplexing over 802.11 wireless interfaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9112892-B2
Application number	US-62992209-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2009
Priority date	Dec 3, 2009
Publication date	Aug 18, 2015
Grant date	Aug 18, 2015

Abstract

In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, a method and apparatus are disclosed that includes aspects of providing one or more data packets at a media access control-service access point of a transmitting device; dividing the one or more data packets into two or more streams of data packets, wherein the two or more streams of data packets are arranged for transmission on a separate wireless interface of the transmitting device; and transmitting the two or more streams of data packets over a wireless medium via their separate wireless interfaces.

First claim

What is being claimed:

1. A method comprising:
providing one or more data packets at one of a plurality of media access control-service access point (MAC-SAP) interfaces of a transmitting device;
dividing the one or more data packets into two or more streams of data packets, wherein the two or more streams of data packets are arranged for transmission on respective separate wireless interfaces of the transmitting device, wherein each wireless interface is associated with one of the plurality of MAC-SAP interfaces;
simultaneously transmitting the two or more streams of data packets over a wireless medium via their respective separate wireless interfaces;
arranging one or more consecutively received data packets into blocks, wherein each block of the data packets is placed in a queue of one of the wireless interfaces, and wherein a data packet of one of the blocks placed in a queue of a particular wireless interface is assigned an interface-specific sequence number representative of an order in which the data packet is placed in the queue of the particular wireless interface and a block sequence number representative of an order in which the one of the blocks is placed in the queue across all of the wireless interfaces; and
adding a block synchronization frame to a queue prior to queuing a new block of data packets on that queue.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning the interface-specific sequence number to each data packet of each block queued for the particular wireless interface.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning the block synchronization frame a sequence number representative of the order in which the block synchronization frame is queued; and
including a sequence number of a last data frame added to a previous queue in a body of the block synchronization frame.

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
including an identifier for the wireless interface associated with the queue where the last data frame was queued in the body of the block synchronization frame.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adding a block synchronization frame to a queue after queuing a new block of data packets on that queue.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
assigning the block synchronization frame a sequence number representative of the order in which the block synchronization frame is queued; and
including the sequence number of a next data frame to be added to a subsequent queue and an identifier for the wireless interface associated with the queue where the next data frame will be queued in a body of the block synchronization frame.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adding the block sequence number to each data packet.

8. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of media access control-service access point (MAC-SAP) interfaces at least one of which is configured to receive one or more data packets;
an inverse multiplexer configured to divide the one or more data packets into two or more streams of data packets, wherein the two or more streams of data packets are arranged for transmission on respective separate wireless interfaces, wherein each wireless interface is associated with one of the plurality of MAC-SAP interfaces; and
a transmitter configured to transmit the two or more streams of data packets over a wireless medium via their respective separate wireless interfaces,
wherein the inverse multiplexer is further configured to arrange one or more consecutively received data packets into blocks, wherein each block of the data packets is placed in a queue of one of the wireless interfaces, and add a block synchronization frame to a queue prior to queuing a new block of data packets on that queue,
wherein a data packet of one of the blocks in a queue of a particular wireless interface is assigned an interface-specific sequence number representative of an order in which the data packet is placed in the queue of the particular wireless interface and a block sequence number representative of an order in which the one of the blocks is placed in the queue across all of the wireless interfaces.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is further configured to assign the interface-specific sequence number to each data packet of each block queued for the particular wireless interface.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is configured to assign the block synchronization frame a sequence number representative of the order in which the block synchronization frame is queued and include a sequence number of a last data frame added to a previous queue in a body of the block synchronization frame.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is configured to include an identifier for the wireless interface associated with the queue where the last data frame was queued in the body of the block synchronization frame.

12. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is configured to add a block synchronization frame to a queue after queuing a new block of data packets on that queue.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is configured to assign the block synchronization frame a sequence number representative of the order in which the block synchronization frame is queued, and include the sequence number of a next data frame to be added to a subsequent queue and an identifier for the wireless interface associated with the queue where the next data frame will be queued in a body of the block synchronization frame.

14. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the inverse multiplexer is configured to assign the block sequence number to each data packet.

15. A method comprising:
providing one or more data packets at one of a plurality of media access control-service access point (MAC-SAP) interfaces of a transmitting device;
dividing the one or more data packets into two or more streams of data packets, wherein the two or more streams of data packets are arranged for simultaneous transmission on respective separate wireless interfaces of the transmitting device, wherein each wireless interface is associated with one of the plurality of MAC-SAP interfaces, and wherein the two or more streams of data packets are associated with a single media access control (MAC) address that commonly represents the plurality of MAC-SAP interfaces of the transmitting device;
arranging one or more consecutively received data packets into blocks, wherein each block of the data packets is placed in a queue of one of the wireless interfaces; and
adding a block synchronization frame to a queue of a first of the wireless interfaces prior to queuing a new block of data packets on that queue, wherein the block synchronization frame includes a sequence number of a last data packet added to a previous queue of a second of the wireless interfaces.

16. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising assigning each data packet of each block placed in a queue of a particular wireless interface an interface-specific sequence number representative of an order in which the data packet is placed in the queue of the particular wireless interface.

17. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of media access control-service access point (MAC-SAP) interfaces at least one of which is configured to receive one or more data packets;
an inverse multiplexer configured to divide the one or more data packets into two or more streams of data

Assignees

• Stacey Robert J
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Stacey Robert J

Classifications

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W28/065

  using assembly or disassembly of packets · CPC title

• H04L69/14 Primary

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W80/02

  Data link layer protocols · CPC title