Multiplex communications – Communication techniques for information carried in plural... – Assembly or disassembly of messages having address headers
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-17
2001-10-30
Patel, Ajit (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Communication techniques for information carried in plural...
Assembly or disassembly of messages having address headers
C370S389000, C370S316000, C370S476000, C455S428000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310893
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to cell relay satellite communication networks, and more particularly, to connectionless cell relay satellite networks.
BACKGROUND OF THE ART
With the deployment of connection-oriented cell relay networks such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, there is a growing need for integrating cell relay networks with the existing packet-based networks, for example, Internet Protocol (IP) networks. In a connection-oriented network, the network must establish a connection (called a virtual circuit) between two nodes in the network with a signaling protocol before any information transfer can take place between the two nodes. Once the network establishes the connection between the two nodes, the network can identify and route the cells transmitted by the two nodes through the network. As a result, the existing cell relay networks must establish a connection between a source node and a destination node in the cell relay networks in order to transport IP traffic over the cell relay networks.
In general, satellite-based cell relay networks offer certain advantages over terrestrial cell relay networks. For example, a satellite-based cell relay network can provide rapid deployment of communication services over a wide geographical area, including remote, rural, urban, and inaccessible areas. Furthermore, satellite-based cell relay networks offer more flexibility in configuring a network and allocating capacity to different sites. Thus, there is a need for a cell relay satellite network that can support the traffic from the existing packet-based communication networks.
Connection-oriented cell relay satellite networks, however, have two significant disadvantages when transporting packet-based traffic from the existing networks. First, the connection-oriented cell relay satellite network must establish a connection between a source node and a destination node before any information transfer can take place between the source node and the destination node, and as a result, the information transfer will experience an initial delay due to the connection setup phase. Second, the satellite network must assign a unique identifier to each connection and manage the assignment of the identifiers so that the network an efficiently reuse each identifier when establishing a new connection.
Each of these two disadvantages are particularly magnified in a cell relay satellite network. A satellite footprint typically covers a wide geographical area, which may include large number of users, and thus, requires a large number of corresponding connection identifiers to support the users. Furthermore, each communication with, for example, a geosynchronous satellite typically experiences a 500 milliseconds round trip delay, which increases the delay due to the connection setup phase.
Thus, it is desirable to have a method and system for communicating packet-based traffic over a cell relay satellite network without establishing a connection in the cell relay satellite network, and thus, eliminating the above-mentioned disadvantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention comprises a method and system for communicating a packet over a cell relay satellite network, without establishing a connection in the cell relay satellite network, by dividing the packet into a number of segments at a source node in the communications network, generating for each segment a fixed size cell that includes a cell header and a payload, with a prefix, a downlink beam locator, and a source node identifier inside each cell header, inserting each of the segments into the payload of each of the generated cells, respectively, and transmitting the cells to the cell relay satellite. The cell relay satellite receives each transmitted cell from the source node, and broadcasts each cell on a downlink beam corresponding to the downlink beam locator in each cell header.
A destination node in the cell relay satellite network receives each broadcasted cell on the downlink beam, and re-assembles the packet from the segments inside the payloads of the received cells. Specifically, the destination node re-assembles the packet by identifying the cells corresponding to the packet, and appending the segments inside the payloads of the identified cells together in the order of receipt of the identified cells. Finally, the destination node may identify a destination address in the packet, and may route the packet to the identified destination address, which may reside in another communications network.
Methods and systems consistent with the present invention have two notable advantages over the existing cell relay satellite networks: First, a cell relay satellite network consistent with the present invention does not need to establish a connection in the network, and thus, eliminating the initial connection setup delay in the existing cell relay networks. Second, a cell relay satellite network consistent with the present invention does not need to expend valuable network processing resources for managing the assignment of unique identifiers to connections in the network.
This summary and the following description of the invention should not restrict the scope of the claimed invention. Both provide examples and explanations to enable others to practice the invention. The accompanying drawings, which form part of the description of the invention, show several embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, explain the principles of the invention.
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Akyol Bora
Strayer William Timothy
Yuan Ruixi
Genuity Inc.
Patel Ajit
Phunkulh Bob A.
Weixel James K.
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