1. A method of wireless link transmission, comprising:
selecting a virtual sequence number for each of a first set of packets to be transmitted in an aggregate frame, wherein the first set of packets includes one or more regular packets, and includes one or more retransmission packets to be retransmitted with the one or more regular packets in the aggregate frame;
modifying a respective packet of the first set of packets by:
modifying a payload of the respective packet to include an original sequence number of the respective packet; and
modifying a header of the respective packet to include a virtual sequence number selected for the respective packet;
generating an aggregate frame which includes the first set of packets modified to include a corresponding virtual sequence number; and
transmitting the aggregate frame to a destination device over a wireless link.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the aggregate frame involves generating an aggregate frame that includes packets associated with different original traffic categories.
3. The method of claim 1,
wherein the packet further includes an original traffic category indicator; and
wherein modifying the respective packet further comprises including a virtual traffic category indicator in the header of the respective packet and including the original traffic category indicator in the payload of the respective packet.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein modifying the respective packet involves modifying the header of the respective packet to include the same virtual traffic category indicator as other packets in the aggregate frame.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring an error rate for a respective original traffic category.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising duplicating, in the aggregate frame, a number of packets associated with the original traffic category for which the error rate is monitored, in response to the error rate surpassing a predetermined threshold.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the aggregate frame to the destination over the wireless link involves transmitting the aggregate frame over an IEEE 802.11 wireless link.
8. A method of wireless link transmission, comprising:
receiving, over a wireless link, an aggregate frame which comprises a set of one or more regular packets and one or more retransmission packets, each modified to include a header with a virtual sequence number;
de-aggregating the set of packets from the aggregate frame;
decapsulating a respective packet of the set by:
obtaining an original sequence number from a payload of the respective packet;
obtaining an original traffic category identifier from the payload of the respective packet; and
updating a header of the respective packet to include the original sequence number and the original traffic category; and
ordering the decapsulated packets based on their original sequence number and original traffic category indicator.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein ordering the decapsulated packets involves ordering a set of decapsulated packets with non-contiguous original sequence numbers.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein ordering the decapsulated packets involves ordering a set of decapsulated packets with non-uniform original traffic categories.
11. The method of claim 8, wherein ordering the decapsulated packets involves ordering a set of decapsulated packets with contiguous original sequence numbers.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the aggregate frame over the wireless link involves receiving the aggregate frame over an IEEE 802.11 wireless link.
13. A system of wireless link transmission, comprising:
a protocol stack operable to select a virtual sequence number for each of a first set of packets to be transmitted in an aggregate frame, wherein the first set of packets includes one or more regular packets, and includes one or more retransmission packets to be retransmitted with the one or more regular packets in the aggregate frame;
a virtual sequence number management module operable to modify a respective packet of the first set of packets by:
modifying a payload of the respective packet to include an original sequence number of the respective packet; and
modifying a header of the respective packet to include a virtual sequence number selected for the respective packet;
an aggregation module operable to generate an aggregate frame which includes the first set of packets modified to include a corresponding virtual sequence number; and
a transmitter operable to transmit the aggregate frame to a destination device over a wireless link.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein while generating the aggregate frame, the aggregation module is further operable to generate an aggregate frame that includes packets associated with different traffic categories.
15. The system of claim 13,
wherein the packet further includes an original traffic category indicator; and
wherein while modifying the respective packet, the virtual sequence number management module is further operable to include a virtual traffic category indicator in the header of the respective packet and including the original traffic category indicator in the payload of the respective packet.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein while modifying the respective packet, the virtual sequence number management module is further operable to modify the header of the respective packet to include the same virtual traffic category indicator as other packets in the aggregate frame.
17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a packet error rate monitoring module operable to monitor an error rate for a respective original traffic category.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the aggregation module is further operable to duplicate, in the aggregate frame, a number of packets associated with the original traffic category for which the error rate is monitored, in response to the error rate surpassing a predetermined threshold.
19. The system of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is operable to transmit the aggregate frame over an IEEE 802.11 wireless link.
20. A system of wireless link transmission, comprising:
a receiving module operable to receive, over a wireless link, an aggregate frame which comprises a set of one more regular packets and one or more retransmission packets, each modified to include a header with a virtual sequence number;
a de-aggregation module operable to de-aggregate the set of packets from the aggregate frame;
a decapsulation module operable to decapsulate a respective packet of the set by:
obtaining an original sequence number from a payload of the respective packet;
obtaining an original traffic category identifier from the payload of the respective packet; and
updating a header of the respective packet to include
the original sequence number and the original traffic category; and
an reordering module operable to order the decapsulated packets based on their original sequence number and original traffic category indicator.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein while ordering the decapsulated packets, the ordering module is further operable to order a set of decapsulated packets with non-contiguous original sequence numbers.
22. The system of claim 20, wherein while ordering the decapsulated packets, the ordering module is further operable to order a set of decapsulated packets with non-uniform original traffic categories.
23. The system of claim 20, wherein while ordering the decapsulated packets, the ordering module is further operable to order a set of decapsulated packets with contiguous original sequence numbers.
24. The system of claim 20, wherein while receiving the aggregate, the receiving module is operable to receive the aggregate frame over an IEEE 802.11 wireless link.
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. A method for making a medical device, comprising:
providing a tube made from a material comprising a polymer composition having a glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting temperature (Tm), the tube being formed by, or modified by a forming process, wherein the forming process includes the step of at least one of raising the temperature of the tube to about, or greater than about Tg or radially straining the material beyond a yield strain for the material;
making a scaffold from the tube formed or modified by the forming process; and
crimping the scaffold to a balloon such that a significant plastic deformation is imposed on the scaffold when crimped to the balloon, including the steps of
reducing a scaffold diameter from a pre-crimp diameter to a first diameter,
rejuvenating the scaffold including radially expanding the diameter from the first diameter to a second diameter, and
reducing the scaffold diameter from the second diameter to a third diameter that is less than the first diameter.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the rejuvenating the scaffold includes radially expanding the scaffold diameter by about 5 to 7%, about 5 to 10%, or about 10 to 15% relative to the pre-crimp scaffold diameter or the first diameter.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rejuvenation includes inducing a strain beyond a yield strain for the polymer, wherein a crest of a scaffold ring has a highest yield strain of about 5 to 20% beyond the strain where yield occurs for the scaffold crest when the scaffold is radially expanded.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the scaffold temperature is about Tg, or about 30, 20, 15 or 5 Deg. C less than Tg when the scaffold diameter is increased form the first diameter to the second diameter.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the crimping further includes one or more of, or any combination of:
increasing the scaffold diameter form the first diameter to the second diameter using the balloon;
rejuvenating the scaffold while the scaffold and balloon are disposed within a crimp mechanism;
rejuvenating the scaffold while the scaffold is disposed within a crimp mechanism;
after the scaffold diameter is increased to the first diameter the scaffold diameter is held at the first diameter an about 1 to 5 second dwell, or 10 to 30 second dwell before a radial constraint is withdrawn;
rejuvenation is done within a crimp head or shortly before placing the scaffold within a crimp head;
rejuvenation is performed using a balloon catheter that is the same as the balloon catheter to which the scaffold is crimped, andor there is a first catheter for rejuvenation and a second catheter to which the scaffold is crimped and the balloon of the first catheter has a higher nominal diameter than the balloon of the second catheter.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the wall thickness of the tube or scaffold at crimping is less than about 150 microns, about 100 microns, about 120 microns, less than about 100 microns, between about 88 and 100 microns, between about 100 and 120 microns, or between about 80 and 100 microns.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein an aspect ratio (AR) of strut width to wall thickness of a strut of the scaffold is between about 1.5 and 1.9, 1.5 to 1.8, 1 to 1.5, 1 to 2.2 or 1.4 to 2.2.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the tube is substantially or completely a blend of polylactide (PLA) and a PLA and polycaprolactone (PCL) random copolymer (20% PCL) and the blended PLA-PCL combination has between about 1% to 5% by weight PCL; or the tube comprises substantially high molecular weight PLLA.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the forming process induces a biaxial orientation of polymer chains to increase a radial strength in the tube and the rejuvenation does not remove the biaxial orientation.
10. A method for crimping, comprising
providing a scaffolding comprising a polymer having a glass transition temperature (Tg); and
placing the scaffold within a crimping device and while the scaffold is within the crimping device performing the steps of:
raising the temperature of the scaffold to between about 10 to 20 degrees above Tg, followed by lowering the scaffold temperature to between about Tg and 15 degrees below Tg; and
while the scaffold has the lowered temperature crimping the scaffold from a first diameter to a second diameter.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the scaffold has biaxially orientated polymer chains during crimping and after raising the temperature of the scaffold to between about 10 to 20 degrees above Tg.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the temperature is raised and then maintained at a raised temperature to rejuvenate the scaffold, including raising the temperature of the scaffold to between about 10 to 20 degrees above Tg and maintaining the temperature for between about less than 10 or 20 minutes or between about 5 and 10 minutes.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein the crimping includes inflating the balloon when the scaffold diameter is being reduced in size.
14. A method of crimping, comprising:
providing a biodegradable polymer scaffold comprising a polymer, the scaffold having an expanded configuration and a crimped configuration for delivery in a vascular lumen;
thermally treating the scaffold to reverse physical aging of the scaffold; and
using an iris-type crimping mechanism,
placing the scaffold within a crimp head,
reducing a diameter of the scaffold from a pre-crimp diameter to a first diameter while the scaffold has the reversed physical aging or shortly after the thermally treating,
removing the scaffold from the crimp head, and
placing the crimped scaffold in a sheath to reduce recoil of the scaffold.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the provided scaffold comprises induced biaxial orientation of the polymer chains and the thermally treated scaffold includes at least some of the induced biaxial orientation.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein the scaffold is crimped from 60 sec to 60 min after the thermal treatment.
18. The method of claim 14, wherein the thermal treatment increases a crystallinity of the scaffold by 0.6 to 2%.
19. The method of claim 14, wherein the scaffold is disposed on a rod during the thermal treatment, wherein the rod is thermally insulated such that about no heat is lost by thermal conductivity from the scaffold to the rod during the thermal treatment.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the outer diameter of the rod is about the same as the inner diameter of the scaffold prior to thermal treatment
21. The method of claim 19, wherein the scaffold is made from a radially expanded precursor tube, such that the thermal treatment causes the scaffold inner diameter to decrease during the thermal treatment.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the rod imposes a radial constraint on the scaffold during the thermal treatment to causes a crown angle of the scaffold to increase during the thermal treatment.