Multi-carrier transmission system adapted for packet data transfer

摘要

An improvement in a data communication link between a server site and a client site. The server site transfers data packets to the client site, each data packet causing an acknowledgment packet to be sent from the client site to the server site. Denote the ratio of the average number of bits in the data packets to the average number of bits in the acknowledgment packets by R. The communication link includes a multi-channel communication link having a plurality of data channels. Each data channel provides communication in one direction between the server site and the client site, each of the channels having a data carrying capacity characteristic of that data channel. In a communication link according to the present invention, the data channels from the server to the client site and from the client site to the server site are assigned such that the ratio of the combined data carrying capacity of the data channels from the server site to the client site to the combined data carrying capacity of the data channels from the client site to the server site is as close to R as possible given the constraint that each data channel carries data exclusively from one of the sites to the other.