What is claimed is:
1. A packet buffer device comprising:
a coupled packet queue prepared for each flow, the coupled packet queue having a plurality of leaf queues individually formed for individual copy destinations belonging to a common flow to accumulate packets as elements and sequentially transfer elements sent out from one of the leaf queues located upstream to one of the leaf queues located downstream such that packets are sequentially send out from the copy destinations belonging to the common flow;
a coupling management table having a plurality of leaf tables individually associated with and prepared for the individual leaf queues to manage elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue; and
a detector configured to cause the leaf table, which is associated with the leaf queue located next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction, to detect that the leaf queue to be deleted next toward the downstream direction is under delete operation, when the leaf queue to be deleted is performed a deleting process.
2. The packet buffer device according to claim 1 wherein the detector is made by providing delete operation identifiers for the leaf queues, respectively, the delete operation identifiers indicating that the leaf queues are under delete operation, respectively.
3. The packet buffer device according to claim 2 wherein the delete operation identifiers are individually provided in the individual leaf tables, which are next to the individual leaf tables associated with the leaf queues to be indicated as being under delete operation toward the downstream direction.
4. The packet buffer device according to claim 3 wherein the delete operation identifier of one of the leaf queues at the down stream end of the coupled packet queue is provided in a root table different from the leaf tables.
5. The packet buffer device according to claim 1 wherein the coupling management table includes a head pointer for pointing an element accumulated at the leading of the leaf queue, when any element is contained in the leaf queue.
6. The packet buffer device according to claim 5 wherein, when no element is accumulated in the leaf queue located next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the downstream direction, the value of the head pointer of the leaf table to be deleted substitutes into the head pointer of the leaf table located next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the downstream direction.
7. The packet buffer device according to claim 6 wherein, when the leaf queue located next toward the downstream direction is detected to be under delete operation by the detector, it is prohibited that an element heretofore located at the leading of the leaf queue next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction is changed as the head pointer of the leaf queue next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the downstream direction.
8. The packet buffer device according to claim 7 wherein it is prohibited that an element is transferred from the leaf queue next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction to the leaf queue to be deleted.
9. The packet buffer device according to claim 1 wherein the coupling management table includes total number information that indicates the total number of elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue.
10. The packet buffer device according to claim 9 wherein the total number information is provided in a root table different from the leaf tables.
11. The packet buffer device according to claim 9 which further comprises a subtractor configured to subtract the number of elements accumulated in the leaf queue to be deleted from the total number information, when the leaf queue to be deleted is located at the downstream end of the coupled packet queue.
12. The packet buffer device according to claim 11 wherein, after the subtractor has subtracted, the number of elements sent out from the leaf queue to be deleted is no more subtracted from the total number information even if the leaf queue to be deleted sends out elements.
13. The packet buffer device according to claim 12 wherein it is prohibited that an element is transferred from the leaf queue next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction to the leaf queue to be deleted.
14. A packet buffer device comprising:
a coupled packet queue prepared for each flow, the coupled packet queue having a plurality of leaf queues individually formed for individual copy destinations belonging to a common flow to accumulate packets as elements and sequentially transfer elements sent out from one of the leaf queues located upstream to one of the leaf queues located downstream such that packets are sequentially send out from the copy destinations belonging to the common flow;
a coupling manager configured to manage elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue and having a total number information storage to be stored the total number of elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue; and
a subtractor configured to subtract the number of elements accumulated in the leaf queue to be deleted from the total number information stored in the total number information storage, when the leaf queue to be deleted is located at the downstream end of the coupled packet queue and the leaf queue to be deleted is performed a deleting process.
15. The packet buffer device according to claim 14 wherein the coupling manager comprises a plurality of leaf tables individually associated with and prepared for the individual leaf queues.
16. The packet buffer device according to claim 15 wherein the total number information storage is provided in a root table different from the leaf tables.
17. The packet buffer device according to claim 14 wherein, after the subtractor has subtracted, the number of elements sent out from the leaf queue to be deleted is no more subtracted from the total number information stored in the total number information storage even if the leaf queue to be deleted sends out elements.
18. The packet buffer device according to claim 14 wherein it is prohibited that an element is transferred from the leaf queue next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction to the leaf queue to be deleted.
19. A packet switching device comprising:
a routing switch configured to switch each inputted packet, based on header information contained in the packet; and
at least one packet buffer device provided in front stage andor rear stage of the routing switch,
wherein the packet buffer device including:
a coupled packet queue prepared for each flow, the coupled packet queue having a plurality of leaf queues individually formed for individual copy destinations belonging to a common flow to accumulate packets as elements and sequentially transfer elements sent out from one of the leaf queues located upstream to one of the leaf queues located downstream such that packets are sequentially send out from the copy destinations belonging to the common flow;
a coupling management table having a plurality of leaf tables individually associated with and prepared for the individual leaf queues to manage elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue; and
a detector configured to cause the leaf table, which is associated with the leaf queue located next to the leaf queue to be deleted toward the upstream direction, to detect that the leaf queue to be deleted next toward the downstream direction is under delete operation, when the leaf queue to be deleted is performed a deleting process.
20. A packet switching device comprising:
a routing switch configured to switch each inputted packet, based on header information contained in the packet; and
at least one packet buffer device provided in front stage andor rear stage of the routing switch,
wherein the packet buffer device including:
a coupled packet queue prepared for each flow, the coupled packet queue having a plurality of leaf queues individually formed for individual copy destinations belonging to a common flow to accumulate packets as elements and sequentially transfer elements sent out from one of the leaf queues located upstream to one of the leaf queues located downstream such that packets are sequentially send out from the copy destinations belonging to the common flow;
a coupling manager configured to manage elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue and having a total number information storage to be stored the total number of elements accumulated in the coupled packet queue; and
a subtractor configured to subtract the number of elements accumulated in the leaf queue to be deleted from the total number information stored in the total number information storage, when the leaf queue to be deleted is located at the downstream end of the coupled packet queue and the leaf queue to be deleted is performed a deleting process.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a wireless communications device to be used in a wireless communication that uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access techniques for communicating a frame between a base station and multiple mobile stations, the wireless communication to contain at least one bit map indicating channel quality index (CQI) information for each of at least a portion of the multiple sub-channels;
wherein the at least one bit map is to provide information indicating whether the CQI information for each of multiple ones of the multiple sub-channels has been under-reported or over-reported.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a frame containing the at least one bit map also contains an indicator that the at least one bit map is to be used.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one bit map comprises a first bit map to indicate under-reporting and a second bit map to indicate over-reporting.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one bit map comprises no more than one bit map.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one bit map is contained within a downlink map used to indicate where in the frame that data for the multiple mobile stations is located.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
the wireless communications device is to be used as one of the mobile stations in the wireless communications network;
the at least one bitmap is to indicate which of the multiple sub-channels has CQI information contained in a same frame as the at least one bit map; and
a single field containing a single set of first CQI information is to be associated with multiple sub-channels indicated in one of the at least one bitmaps.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:
the at least one bitmap comprises multiple bitmaps; and
each of the multiple bitmaps has at least one bit position for each of all sub-channels that the base station may use in communicating with the mobile stations.
8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:
the at least one bit map comprises a master bitmap, a first bitmap, and second bitmap;
the master bitmap has at least one bit position for each of all sub-channels that the base station may use in communicating with the mobile stations; and
the first bitmap has at least one bit position only for each of the sub-channels being reported on as indicated by the master bitmap; and
the frame comprises a first set of CQI information associated with the sub-channels indicated by the first bitmap.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:
the second bitmap has at least one bit position only for each of the sub-channels being reported on by the master bitmap but not being reported on by the first bitmap; and
the frame contains a second set of CQI information for only those sub-channels indicated in the second bitmap.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:
the frame contains a third set of CQI information for only those sub-channels being reported on by the master bitmap but not being reported on by the first and second bitmaps; and
the frame does not contain a third bitmap directly indicating which sub-channels are associated with the third set of CQI information.
11. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:
the mobile station is capable of transmitting the at least one bitmap and the CQI information in any of multiple formats; and
the frame contains an indicator indicating which of the multiple formats is being selected to transmit the at least one bitmap and the CQI information.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the selection is based on channel conditions.
13. A method, comprising:
determining, in a wireless communications device, a set of channel quality index (CQI) information that applies to multiple sub-channels in a wireless communications network using orthogonal frequency division multiple access; and
communicating wirelessly, between a base station and a mobile station, the CQI information and at least one bitmap indicating which of the multiple sub-channels the CQI information applies to, wherein the at least one bit map provides information indicating whether the CQI information for each of the multiple sub-channels has been under-reported or over-reported.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one bit map comprises a first bit map to indicate under-reporting and a second bit map to indicate over-reporting.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one bit map comprises no more than one bit map.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one bit map is contained within a downlink map used to indicate where in the frame that data for the multiple mobile stations is located.
17. An article comprising
a tangible machine-readable medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
determining, in a wireless communications device, a set of channel quality index (CQI) information that applies to multiple sub-channels in a wireless communications network using orthogonal frequency division multiple access; and
communicating wirelessly, between a base station and a mobile station, the CQI information and at least one bitmap indicating which of the multiple sub-channels the CQI information applies to;
wherein the at least one bit map comprises a master bitmap, a first bitmap, and second bitmap, the master bitmap has at least one bit position for each of all sub-channels that the base station may use in communicating with the mobile stations, the first bitmap has at least one bit position only for each of the sub-channels being reported on as indicated by the master bitmap, and the frame comprises a first set of CQI information associated with the sub-channels indicated by the first bitmap.
18. The article of claim 17, wherein:
the wireless communications device comprises one of the mobile stations in the wireless communications network;
the at least one bitmap indicates which of the multiple sub-channels has CQI information contained in a same frame as the at least one bit map; and
a single field containing a single set of first CQI information is associated with multiple sub-channels indicated in one of the at least one bitmaps.
19. The article of claim 18, wherein each of the multiple bitmaps has at least one bit position for each of all sub-channels that the base station may use in communicating with the mobile stations.
20. The article of claim 17, wherein:
the second bitmap has at least one bit position only for each of the sub-channels being reported on by the master bitmap but not being reported on by the first bitmap; and
the frame contains a second set of CQI information for only those sub-channels indicated in the second bitmap.
21. The article of claim 20, wherein:
the frame contains a third set of CQI information for only those sub-channels being reported on by the master bitmap but not being reported on by the first and second bitmaps; and
the frame does not contain a third bitmap directly indicating which sub-channels are associated with the third set of CQI information.
22. The article of claim 18, wherein:
the mobile station is capable of transmitting the at least one bitmap and the CQI information in any of multiple formats; and
the frame contains an indicator indicating which of the multiple formats is being used to transmit the at least one bitmap and the CQI information.