All The Claims

1. A method comprising:
provisioning a first virtual connection between a first device and a second device;
provisioning a second virtual connection between the first device and the second device;
receiving a data flow at the first device;
duplicating the data flow to generated duplicated data flows;
transmitting the duplicated data flows to the second device via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection;
receiving the duplicated data flows at the second device via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection;
determining a performance characteristic of the data flow received via the first virtual connection;
determining the performance characteristic of the data flow received via the second virtual connection;
selecting, for forwarding, the data flow received via the first virtual connection or the data flow received via the second virtual connection based on the performance characteristics of the data flow received via the first virtual connection and the performance characteristic of the data flow received via the second virtual connection; and
forwarding the selected data flow.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection comprise Ethernet virtual connections (EVCs).
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first virtual connection comprises an active EVC and the second virtual connection comprises a backup EVC configured to provide automated backup protection for the active EVC.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
compensating for differential delay associated with data received via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data flow comprises a packet flow having a plurality of packets therein.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the performance characteristic comprises a packet loss characteristic or a packet error characteristic.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the data flow received via the first virtual connection or the data flow received via the second virtual connection based on the performance characteristics of the data flow received via the first virtual connection and the performance characteristic of the data flow received via the second virtual connection, further comprises comparing the plurality of packets received via the first virtual connection with the plurality of packets received via the second virtual connection.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
inserting a sequence number into each packet in the packet flow, wherein the sequence numbers comprise incremented numbers representative of an order of packets within the packet flow,
wherein comparing the plurality of packets received via the first virtual connection with the plurality of packets received via the second virtual connection is performed based on their respective sequence numbers.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
identifying packets in the non-selected packet flow that correspond to identified missing or damaged packets in the selected packet flow; and
inserting the identified packets into the selected packet flow prior to forwarding the selected packet flow.
10. A system, comprising:
a first network device;
a second network device coupled to the first network device via a first virtual connection and a second virtual connection,
wherein the first network device comprises:
a first switching device configured to output a first data flow for transmission via the first virtual connection and a second data flow for transmission via the second virtual connection, wherein the first data flow is substantially identical to the second data flow,
wherein the first switching device is configured to transmit the first data flow and the second data flow to the second device via the first and second virtual connections, respectively;

wherein the second network device comprises:
a second switching device configured to receive the first data flow and the second data flow via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection, respectively,
wherein the second switching device is configured to determine a performance characteristic of the first data flow and a performance characteristic of the second data flow,
wherein the second switching device is configured to select, for forwarding, the first data flow or the second data flow based on a comparison of the performance characteristics of the first data flow and the second data flow, and
wherein the second switching device is configured to forward the selected data flow.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection comprise Ethernet virtual connections (EVCs).
12. The system of claim 10, wherein the second switching device is further configured to compensate for differential delay associated with data received via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection.
13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first data flow and the second data flow comprise first and second packet flows having a plurality of packets.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the performance characteristic comprises at least one of a packet loss characteristic or a packet error characteristic, and
wherein the second switching device is configured to select, the first packet flow or the second packet flow based on the at least one of the packet loss characteristic or the packet error characteristic of the first packet flow and the second packet flow.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the second switching device is further configured to compare the plurality of packets received via the first virtual connection with the plurality of packets received via the second virtual connection on a packet-by-packet basis.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first switching device is further configured to insert a sequence number into packets in the first and second packet flows, wherein the sequence numbers comprise incremented numbers representative of an order of packets within the first and second packet flows, respectively, and
wherein the second switching device is further configured to compare the plurality of packets received via the first virtual connection with the plurality of packets received via the second virtual connection based on their respective sequence numbers.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first switching device is further configured to insert the sequence numbers into respective headers of each packet in the first and second packet flows.
18. A method, comprising:
provisioning a first virtual connection between a first network device and a second network device;
provisioning a second virtual connection between the first network device and the second network device,
wherein the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection comprise different physical paths;
duplicating a received packet flow to generate a first packet flow and a second packet flow;
transmitting the first packet flow to the second network device via the first virtual connection;
transmitting the second packet flow to the second network device via the second virtual connection;
comparing, at the second network device, packets received via the first virtual connection with packets received via the second virtual connection;
selecting the first packet flow or the second packet flow based on the comparing; and
forwarding the selected packet flow.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
identifying a failure of the first virtual connection or the second virtual connection;
selecting, for forwarding, the packet flow transmitted via the other of the first virtual connection or the second virtual connection; and
forwarding the selected packet flow.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the selecting and forwarding of the selected packet flow is performed in less than 50 milliseconds.

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 soft handoff system comprising a correspondent host, a first base station, a second base station, and a mobile terminal, wherein the correspondent host transmits messages to said first base station where said first base station retransmits said messages to said second base station using IP-in-IP encapsulation between said base stations, wherein said base stations encapsulate and de-encapsulate packets, wherein said mobile terminal is in an area serviceable by and receives said messages from both said first base station and said second base station, and wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate a soft handoff.
2. A mobile terminal configured to receive a first message from a first base station and a second message from a second base station, wherein the mobile terminal experiences soft handoff between said first and second base stations, said soft handoff using IP-in-IP encapsulation in which said first base station transmits said first message to both said mobile terminal and said second base station, and wherein said IP-in-IP encapsulation is applied to said first message toward said second base station, and wherein said second base station transmits a content included in the first message with said IP-in-IP encapsulation received from said first base station to said mobile terminal as said second message, and wherein said base stations encapsulate and de-encapsulate packets, and wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
3. A soft handoff system comprising:
a correspondent host;
a first base station that transmits packets to a mobile station;
a second base station; and,
said mobile station,
wherein packets from said correspondent host are transmitted to said first base station, wherein said packets are encapsulated with a header, and sent to said second base station, and wherein said header is removed from said packet and the content of said packet is transmitted to said mobile station, said packets being transmitted from both said first base station and said second base station to said mobile terminal while experiencing soft handoff, and wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
4. The system according to claim 3, wherein said packets are exchanged in an IP network.
5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said IP network is part of a CDMA network.
6. The system according to claim 3, wherein a second packet from said correspondent host is transmitted to said second base station, wherein said second packet is encapsulated with a second header and sent to said first base station, and wherein said second header is removed from said second packet and the content of said second packet is transmitted to said mobile station.
7. The system according to claim 3, wherein said mobile station transmits a first data unit to said first base station and said mobile station transmits a second data unit to said second base station.
8. The system according to claim 7, wherein said second base station transmits a second packet containing content received from said mobile station to said correspondent host or to said first base station.
9. A method for performing soft handoff using IP-in-IP encapsulation between base stations, said method comprising:
transmitting messages from a first base station to both a mobile terminal and a second base station;
applying said IP-in-IP encapsulation to messages toward said second base station; and
transmitting from said second base station a content of messages with IP-in-IP encapsulation received from said first base station to said mobile terminal,
wherein said base stations are configured to encapsulate and de-encapsulate IP packets, and
wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
10. A method for performing soft handoff using IP-in-IP encapsulation between base stations, comprising:
receiving at a mobile terminal a first message transmitted by a first base station; and
receiving at said mobile terminal a second message transmitted by a second base station,
wherein said second base station generates said second message based on said first message that said second base station receives from said first base station,
wherein said first and second base stations perform encapsulation and de-encapsulation of IP packets for transferring said messages from said first base station to said second base station, and
wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
11. A method for performing soft handoff, in which a set of packets are transmitted to a mobile terminal from both a first base station and a second base station while said mobile terminal is experiencing soft handoff comprising the steps of:
transmitting a packet from a correspondent host to said first base station;
encapsulating said packet with a new header;
transmitting said packet with said new header to said second base station;
removing said new header at said second base station;
transmitting content in said packet to said mobile station, and
wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said packet is routed in an IP network.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said IP network is a part of a CDMA network.
14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:
transmitting a second packet from said correspondent host to said second base station;
adding a second header to said second packet;
transmitting said second packet and said second header to said first base station;
removing said second header; and
transmitting the content contained within said second packet to said mobile station.
15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:
receiving a first data unit transmitted from said mobile station at said first base station; and
receiving a second data unit from said mobile station at said second base station.
16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the steps of:
receiving a second packet containing content received from said mobile station at said correspondent host or to said first base station.
17. A method for a mobile station to experience soft handoff between base stations using IP-in-IP encapsulation, comprising:
transmitting from a first base station a packet to said mobile station;
encapsulating a content included in said packet at said first base station;
transmitting said encapsulated content from said first base station to a second base station,
wherein said second base station is configured to transmit said content included in said encapsulated content to said mobile station during soft hand off, and
wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
18. A method for performing soft handoff for a mobile station in which packets are transferred with both a first base station and a second base station when a mobile terminal is in an area serviceable by both said first base station and said second base station, said method comprising:
transmitting a packet from a correspondent host to said first base station,
encapsulating at said first base station content in said packet with a new header,
transmitting said content with said new header from said first base station to said second base station,
removing said new header at said second base station,
transmitting said content from said first base station to said mobile station, and
transmitting said content from said second base station to said mobile station,
wherein at least one of said first and second base stations is configured to determine when to initiate said soft handoff.
19. The method according to claim 18, wherein said packet is routed in an IP network.
20. The method according to claim 19, wherein said IP network is a part of a CDMA network.
21. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the steps of:
transmitting a first data unit from said mobile station to said first base station; and
transmitting a second data unit from said mobile station to said second base station.
22. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the steps of:
transmitting a second packet containing content received from said mobile station to said correspondent host or to said first base station.
23. The system according to claim 3, said first base station further comprising:
an output through which said packets received from said correspondent host are transmitted to said mobile station, such that said mobile station receives packets from said first base station and said second base station,
wherein said first base station and said second base station both transmitting said packets from said correspondent host results in soft-handoff between said first base station and said second base station.
24. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of:
transmitting from said first base station to said mobile terminal said packet from said correspondent host,
wherein said first base station and said second base station both transmitting said packets from said correspondent host results in soft-handoff between said first base station and said second base station.
25. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the step of:
receiving a third packet at said mobile station, said third packet having been transmitted from said first base station, said first base station having received said third packet encapsulated by a third header, said third header having been added by said second base station.
26. The soft handoff system according to claim 3, wherein a network management system monitors a delay between said messages.
27. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, wherein the transmission from said first base station to said mobile terminal and the transmission from said second base station to said mobile terminal occur simultaneously.
28. The soft handoff system according to claim 3, wherein said encapsulation header includes an option field that specifies a time for said second base station to transmit said packets to said mobile terminal.
29. The method according to claim 9, said mobile terminal monitoring a delay between reception of messages originating from said first base station and said second base station and reporting said delay to at least one of said base stations.
30. The method according to claim 9, wherein said base stations transmit said messages to said mobile terminal simultaneously.
31. The method according to claim 11, wherein said new header includes a field specifying a time for said second base station to transmit said packet.
32. The method according to claim 9, wherein the encapsulation includes a field specifying a time for the second base station to transmit packets to the mobile terminal.
33. The method according to claim 18, wherein said receiving step receives said content from both said first base station and said second base station simultaneously.

1. A process for quenching an alkaline catalyst used in a melt polycondensation reaction for the production of polycarbonate, the process comprising:
combining an intermediate polycarbonate composition with a quenching;
composition in a reactor, wherein the quenching composition includes a compound having at least one acid or acid ester moiety and at least one amine moiety;
heating the intermediate polycarbonate; and
reducing the pressure in the reactor to produce a finished polycarbonate.
2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the quenching composition includes a compound of formula:
RaRbNASO3Rc
wherein Ra, and Rb are each independently hydrogen, C1-C12 alkyl, C1-C12 aryl, or C1-C18 alkylaryl; Ra, Rb, singly or in combination form a heterocyclic ring structure with N; Rc is a hydrogen; and A is C1-C12 alkyl, C1-C12 aryl, or C1-C18 alkylaryl.
3. The process according to claim 1, wherein the quenching composition includes a compound of formula:
RaRbRcNASO3
wherein Ra and Rb are each independently hydrogen, C1-C12 alkyl, C1-C12 aryl, or C1-C18 alkylaryl; Rc is a hydrogen; Ra, Rb, singly or in combination form a heterocylic ring structure with N; and A is C1-C12 alkyl, C1-C12 aryl, or C1-C18 alkylaryl.
4. The process according to claim 1, wherein the quenching composition comprises N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N-3-propanesulfonic acid compound.
5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the quenching composition comprises 1,4,-piperazinebis(ethanesulfonic acid).
6. The process according to claim 1, wherein the quenching composition comprises 5-dimethylamino-1-napthalenesulfonic acid.
7. The process according to claim 4, wherein about 15 equivalents of the quencher compound per alkaline catalyst is added to quench the residual catalyst.
8. The process according to claim 5, wherein about two equivalents of the quencher compound per alkaline catalyst is added to quench the residual catalyst.
9. The process according to claim 6, wherein about two equivalents of the quencher compound per alkaline catalyst is added to quench the residual catalyst.
10. The process according to claim 1, wherein heating and reducing the pressure in the reactor are at a temperature and a pressure effective for removing low molecular weight oligomers, byproduct phenol and unreacted monomers from the intermediate polycarbonate.
11. The process according to claim 1, wherein heating the intermediate polycarbonate comprises increasing the temperature to an amount greater than 260 C.
12. The process according to claim 1, wherein heating the intermediate polycarbonate comprises increasing a temperature to greater than 260 C.
13. The process according to claim 1, wherein reducing the pressure comprises stepwise reducing the pressure to less than about 0.8 torr.
14. A polycarbonate article manufactured in accordance with the process of claim 1, wherein the polycarbonate is substantially a linear polycarbonate comprising less than 1500 ppm of a branched polycarbonate structure.

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 determining attributes of communication channels of multi-user (MU)-multiple input multiple output (MIMO) users in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based multiple access (OFDMA) system, the method comprising:
receiving from a base station, for at least one sub-band of contiguous sub-carriers, an indication of an estimate of or an upper-bound on a total number of streams that are co-scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band or an indication of a fraction (\u03b1) of a transmit power at the base station that is applied to streams that are scheduled for transmission to a particular user;
determining one or more signal quality measures for the at least one sub-band based on at least one of the fraction or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band; and
transmitting to the base station an indication of the one or more signal quality measures.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality measures are signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs), the indication of the one or more signal quality measures is an indication of one or more channel quality indices (CQIs) that are based on the SINRs, and wherein the method further comprises:
determining a precoder matrix for the at least one sub-band based on at least one of the fraction or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting to the base station an indication of the precoder matrix.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving an indication of a suggested or an upper-bound precoder rank and wherein the determining one or more signal quality measures and the determining the precoder matrix is further based upon at least one of the fraction, the suggested or upper-bound precoder rank, or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the precoder matrix or the one or more SINRs are determined under the assumption that a remaining fraction of the transmit power is 1\u2212\u03b1 and is assigned to streams that are scheduled for transmission to users co-scheduled with the particular user.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the precoder matrix or the one or more SINRs are determined under the assumption that the streams that are scheduled for transmission to the particular user are allocated equal power and that the streams that are scheduled for transmission to the users co-scheduled with the particular user are allocated equal power.
6. The method of claim 3, wherein the precoder matrix is determined in accordance with at least one of single-user scheduling rules or multi-user scheduling rules, wherein the one or more signal quality measures are determined in accordance with at least one of the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting at least one tag identifying each signal quality measure as being determined in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules and at least one other tag identifying the precoder matrix as being determined in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the precoder matrix and the one or more SINRs are determined under the multi-user scheduling rules.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining one or more signal quality measures further comprises determining one or more other signal quality measures in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules based on the precoder matrix and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting an indication of the one or more other signal quality measures.
9. The method of claim 6, wherein the precoder matrix and the one or more SINRs are determined under the single-user scheduling rules, wherein the method further comprises determining one or more other signal quality measures in accordance with the multi-user scheduling rules based on the precoder matrix and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting an indication of the one or more other signal quality measures.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the precoder matrix is a first precoder matrix, wherein the method further comprises determining a second precoder matrix based on the first precoder matrix in accordance with the multi-user scheduling rules and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting an indication of the second precoder matrix to the base station.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining the first precoder matrix comprises determining an other rank as the rank for the first precoder matrix, wherein the determining the second precoder matrix comprises selecting the minimum rank between the received rank and the other rank as the rank for the second precoder matrix and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting an indication of the other rank to the base station.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining the second precoder matrix comprises determining a sub-matrix of the first precoder matrix as the second precoder matrix.
13. A method for determining precoders for communication channels of multi-user (MU)-multiple input multiple output (MIMO) users in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based multiple access (OFDMA) system, the method comprising:
receiving from a base station, for at least one sub-band of contiguous sub-carriers, an indication of an estimate of or an upper-bound on a total number of streams that are co-scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band and an indication of a fraction (\u03b1) of a transmit power at the base station that is applied to streams that are scheduled for transmission to a particular user;
determining a precoder matrix for the at least one sub-band based on at least one of the fraction or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band; and
transmitting to the base station an indication of the precoder matrix.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises
determining one or more signal quality measures for the at-least one sub-band based on at least one of the fraction or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting to the base station an indication of the one or more signal quality measures.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the signal quality measures are signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs), the indication of the one or more signal quality measures is an indication of one or more channel quality indices (CQIs) that are based on the SINRs.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein the receiving further comprises receiving an indication of a suggested or an upper-bound precoder rank and wherein the determining one or more signal quality measures and the determining the precoder matrix is further based upon at least one of the fraction, the suggested or upper-bound precoder rank, or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the precoder matrix or the one or more signal quality measures are determined under the assumption that a remaining fraction of the transmit power is 1\u2212\u03b1 and is assigned to streams that are scheduled for transmission to users co-scheduled with the particular user.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the precoder matrix or the one or more SINRs are determined under the assumption that the streams that are scheduled for transmission to the particular user are allocated equal power and that the streams that are scheduled for transmission to the users co-scheduled with the particular user are allocated equal power.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the precoder matrix is determined in accordance with at least one of single-user scheduling rules or multi-user scheduling rules, wherein the one or more signal quality measures are determined in accordance with at least one of the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules and wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting at least one tag identifying each signal quality measure as being determined in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules and at least other one tag identifying the precoder matrix as being determined in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules.
20. A receiver system for determining attributes of communication channels of multi-user (MU)-multiple input multiple output (MIMO) users in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based multiple access (OFDMA) system comprising:
a receiver configured to receive from a base station, for at least one sub-band of contiguous sub-carriers, an indication of an estimate of or an upper-bound on a total number of streams that are co-scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band or an indication of a fraction of a transmit power at the base station that is applied to streams that are scheduled for transmission to a particular user;
a processor configured to determine one or more signal quality measures for the at least one sub-band based on at least one of the fraction or the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band; and
a transmitter configured to transmit to the base station an indication of the one or more signal quality measures.