Traffic tunnel for end to end low latency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9385773-B2
Application number	US-201313925021-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2013
Priority date	Jun 14, 2013
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

A communication circuitry includes a media access control including a first wireless interface and a second wireless interface. An application processor includes a network stack connected with the media access control. A communication packet is routed from the first wireless interface to the second wireless interface or from the second wireless interface to the first wireless interface without sending the communication packet to the network stack.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication circuitry included in a wireless device, comprising:
a transceiver comprising a media access control layer and including a first interface and a second interface; and
an application processor including a network stack in communication with the media access control layer;
a device driver configured to create a traffic tunnel at the media access control layer within the transceiver, the device driver configured to receive control information from an application, the control information providing a per packet filter criteria for determination, by the device driver based on the per packet filter criteria, whether to route a communication packet from the first interface to the second interface or from the second interface to the first interface, through the traffic tunnel;
wherein the communication packet is routed from the first interface to the second interface, or from the second interface to the first interface within the traffic tunnel created at the media access control layer to exclude the communication packet from being processed by the network stack.

2. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where the media access control layer does not send an interrupt to the application processor.

3. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where the first interface connects with a wireless access point and the second interface connects with a wireless device.

4. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , further including a database to store instructions to send communication packets from the first interface to the second interface or the second interface to the first interface.

5. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where the first interface establishes a connection with the Internet and the second connection establishes a wireless local area network.

6. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where a host processor is powered down during routing of the communication packet from the first interface to the second interface of the transceiver or from the second interface to the first interface of the transceiver since the communication packet does not reach the host processor or the network stack.

7. A method, comprising:
creating a traffic tunnel in a media access control layer between a first interface and a second interface of a wireless device;
receiving control information from an application, the control information providing a per packet filter criteria;
determining, based on the per packet filter criteria, whether to route a communication packet from the first interface to the second interface or from the second interface to the first interface, through the traffic tunnel;
controlling in a wireless driver of the wireless device the first interface to send a communication packet directly to the second interface through the traffic tunnel in the media access control layer of the wireless device so as to bypass processing by a network stack included in the wireless device.

8. The method of claim 7 , further including powering down a host processor while sending the communication packet from the first interface to the second interface since the communication packet stays in the communication tunnel and does not leave the media access control layer.

9. The method of claim 7 , where the first interface connects with a wide area network and the second interface connects with a local area network.

10. A communication device, comprising:
a driver including a first interface and a second interface, the driver configured to receive control information from an application, the control information comprising a per packet filter criteria; and
a network stack connected with the driver, the network stack configured to control a flow of communication packets between a wide area network and the driver; and
the driver configured to create a communication tunnel in a media access control layer of the communication device and control a flow of communication packets directly from the first interface to the second interface through the communication tunnel to preclude involvement of the network stack, wherein control of the flow of communication packets directly from the first interface to the second interface through the communication tunnel is based on the per packet filter criteria.

11. The communication device of claim 10 , where the first interface connects with the wide area network via an access point and the second interface connects with a local area network.

12. The communication device of claim 11 , where the local area network comprises WiFi.

13. The communication device of claim 10 , where a host processor is powered down during routing of the communication packet from the first interface to the second interface since the communication packet does not reach the network stack.

14. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where the communication packet is routed directly between the first interface and the second interface.

15. The communication circuitry of claim 1 , where the communication packet is routed in the traffic tunnel to prevent the communication packet from reaching the network stack.

16. The communication circuitry of claim 15 , where the traffic tunnel is maintained completely within the media access control (MAC) layer.

17. The communication circuitry of claim 15 , wherein a portion of the communication circuitry, comprising the application processor including the network stack is powered down during routing of the communication packet from the first interface to the second interface of the transceiver or from the second interface to the first interface of the transceiver.

18. The method of claim 7 , further comprising powering down the wireless driver of the wireless device while the communication packet is being sent to the second interface through the traffic tunnel since the communication packet does not reach the wireless driver.

Assignees

• Broadcom Corp

Inventors

• Vaidya Harish
• Neelakandan Sriram
• Raman Rakesh
• Hegde Gireesh

Classifications

• H04L69/16

  Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] · CPC title

• H04B1/40 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04L45/66 Primary

  Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's · CPC title