Transmission of Segmented Frames in Power Line Communication

Abstract

Segmented frames of data may be transmitted from a transmitting device using conflict free slots (CFS) within a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol on a noisy media. At a receiver, a segmented frame of data is received. The data is represented by a plurality of tones. If requested by the transmitter, a tone map response command is prepared that specifies a set of optimized tone map parameters by analyzing the received frame of data. Any previously determined tone map response commands to the transmitting device are deleted. A sequence of frame segments may be received in conflict free slots, but only one tone map response is transmitted to the transmitting device after receiving the entire sequence of frame segments.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for transferring frames of data using carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) on a noisy media, the method comprising:
 transmitting a sequence of segmented data frames from a transmitter a via the noisy media to a receiving device using a plurality of conflict free slots, wherein the data is represented by a plurality of tones;   receiving an acknowledgment from the receiving device for each correctly received data frame;   retransmitting a segmented data frame when an acknowledgement is not received; and   including a tone map request with only one of the segmented frames of data when a segmented data frame is retransmitted by the transmitter on an immediately subsequent conflict free slot in a first mode of operation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tone map request is included with only a last one of the segmented data frames. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: dynamically configuring the transmitter to a second mode of operation to retransmit one or more of the sequence of segmented data frames only after another CSMA/CA contest; and
 including a tone map request with each of the plurality of segmented data frames while the transmitter is configured in the second mode.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 encrypting a complete frame of data to form an encrypted frame of data; and   segmenting the encrypted frame of data to form the sequence of segmented data frames.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 segmenting a frame of data to form a sequence of segmented data frames; and   encrypting each segmented data frame in the sequence of segmented data frames.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the noisy media is a high voltage power line.