| 摘要 |
<p>An error-correcting communication protocol is provided which is implemented within a network communication system. The network communication system includes at least one transmission medium connecting a plurality of communicating endpoints, i.e., devices or units. The protocol provides for error-corrected transmission of packets sent to either single or multiple endpoints, e.g., broadcast packets. According to the protocol, each transmitting endpoint separates its traffic, e.g., data packets, to be transmitted into distinct queues. The packet at the head of one queue is transmitted, and no other packet is transmitted until a transmit complete signal is generated. There is only one incomplete transmission from a given transmitting endpoint at any time. When a packet is received without error and accepted by a destination endpoint, the destination endpoint immediately returns an acknowledgment indicating successful reception to the transmitting endpoint. The transmit complete signal is generated at the transmitting endpoint at a time when any receiver acknowledgment should have been received by the transmitting endpoint. When the transmit complete signal is processed by the transmitting endpoint, if a receiver acknowledgment indicating successful reception has been received, the packet previously sent is removed from the head of its queue. Otherwise, the packet is left at the head of its queue, the queue is placed in a "pending retry" state, and a short, "pending retry" timer is started (unless the "pending retry" timer has been started because of a pending retry for another queue). In either event, another packet is transmitted from the head of a queue not in the "pending retry" state, if there is any. When the "pending retry" timer expires, all queues are moved out of the "pending retry" state, enabling their packets to be transmitted again. A sequence number consisting of at least one bit may be used for all transmissions from the same queue, and checked by the destination endpoint, so that duplicate packets due to lost receiver acknowledgments may be discarded by the destination endpoint. <IMAGE></p> |
