Reliable transport layer protocol in low performance 8-bit microcontrollers

Abstract

A reliable communication protocol RUDP is provided to transfer data between two systems connected in a network. Working over the unreliable UDP transport layer protocol, the RUDP protocol adds an acknowledging mechanism to otherwise unreliable UDP packets. Contrary to the TCP transport layer protocol, which establishes a connection before any data transfer, the RUDP is used to transfer short amounts of information or messages, so a connectionless communication is used. In a connectionless context the complexity of the encoding-decoding algorithm and the amount of memory consumed by the protocol is reduced. Such characteristics makes the RUDP protocol suitable for its implementation in systems with limited memory and speed, like low processing power 8-bit microcontrollers. Furthermore, by programming the RUDP protocol over the UDP protocol, its implementation in a personal computer can be made with common programming tools.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for providing a reliable connectionless protocol to transfer short pieces of information, the method comprising the steps of: 
 Using a data transfer process using a layers stack model consisting of multiple layers; and    Adding an intermediate transport layer with the following fields, type of packet and packet ID.    
     
     
         2 . The method in  claim 1  in which said type of packet field is a single byte.  
     
     
         3 . The method in  claim 1  in which said packet ID is a single byte.  
     
     
         4 . The method in  claim 1  in which said type of data field has three possible meanings: 
 that it is a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;  
 that it is a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and  
 that it is a packet that is an acknowledge response.  
 
     
     
         5 . The method in  claim 1  in which said Packet ID has three possible meanings: 
 it is a number choosen by the packet sending means if it is in a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;  
 the field is ignored if it is in a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and  
 it is the packet ID of the data packet being acknowledged if it is in a packet that is an acknowledge response.  
 
     
     
         6 . The method in  claim 1  in which includes the following steps comprising: 
 Sending a packet with the acknowledgement request;  
 Turning on a timer means;  
 Waiting for an acknowledgement for the sent packet;  
 Resending the packet if timer means exceed set response time without receiving an acknowledgement;  
 Repeating the previous two steps until acknowledgement is received or a set number of retries is reached; and  
 Reporting the results.  
 
     
     
         7 . The method in  claim 1  in which includes the following steps comprising: 
 Receiving a packet with an acknowledgement request;  
 Checking to see if it is a duplicate packet by comparing the packet number with the previously received packet;  
 Generating an acknowledgement; and  
 Processing the data.  
 
     
     
         8 . The method in  claim 1  in which includes processing with an 8-bit microprocesser.  
     
     
         9 . The method in  claim 1  in which includes the following steps comprising using an UDP transport protocol.  
     
     
         10 . A computer program wherein the base component has interfaces and the program code for: 
 Using a data transfer process using a layers stack model consisting of multiple layers; and    Adding an an intermediate transport layer with the following fields, type of packet and packet ID.    
     
     
         11 . The computer program in  claim 10  in which said type of packet field is a single byte.  
     
     
         12 . The computer program in  claim 10  in which said packet ID is a single byte.  
     
     
         13 . The computer program in  claim 10  in which said type of data field has three possible meanings: 
 that it is a picket that contains data that must be acknowledged;  
 that it is a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and  
 that it is a packet that is an acknowledge.  
 
     
     
         14 . The computer program in  claim 10  in which said Packet ID has three possible meanings: 
 it is a number choosen by the packet sending means if it is in a packet that contains data that must be acknowledged;  
 the field is ignored if it is in a packet that contains data that does not need to be acknowledged; and  
 it is the packet ID of the data packet being acknowledged if it is in a packet that is an acknowledge response.  
 
     
     
         15 . The computer program in  claim 10  further comprising: 
 Computer code for sending a packet with the acknowledgement request;  
 Computer code for turning on a timer means;  
 Computer code for waiting for acknowledgement for the sent packet;  
 Computer code for resending the packet if timer means exceed set response time before acknowledgement is received;  
 Computer code for repeating the previous two steps until acknowledgement is received or a set number of retries is reached; and  
 Computer code for reporting the results.  
 
     
     
         16 . The computer program in  claim 10  further comprising: 
 Computer code for receiving a packet with an acknowledgement request;  
 Computer code for checking to see if it is a duplicate packet by comparing the packet number with the previously received packet;  
 Computer code for generating an acknowledgement; and  
 Computer code for processing the data.  
 
     
     
         17 . The computer program in  claim 10  further comprising using an UDP transport protocol.