US 11,811,533 B2
Frame acknowledgement method
Henri Teboulle, Rueil Malmaison (FR); and Franck Harnay, Rueil Malmaison (FR)
Assigned to SAGEMCOM ENERGY & TELECOM SAS, Rueil Malmaison (FR)
Filed by SAGEMCOM ENERGY & TELECOM SAS, Rueil Malmaison (FR)
Filed on Jun. 4, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/892,719.
Claims priority of application No. 1906502 (FR), filed on Jun. 18, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2020/0403734 A1, Dec. 24, 2020
Int. Cl. H04W 4/06 (2009.01); H04L 1/1812 (2023.01); H04W 60/00 (2009.01)
CPC H04L 1/1812 (2013.01) [H04W 4/06 (2013.01); H04W 60/00 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for acknowledging uplink frames transmitted from end devices to server equipment in a communication system, the method being implemented by the server equipment, the method comprising, for each said end device:
receiving from said end device a message requesting registration with the server equipment;
allocating said end device to a group and to a subgroup of said group;
obtaining an address to be used by said end device for subsequently communicating, in the communication system, part of said address identifying said group, another part of said address identifying said subgroup and yet another part of said address identifying said end device in said subgroup;
transmitting to said end device a registration-confirmation message, including the address obtained, as well as information representing an estimated instant of the next transmission of acknowledgement, referred to as mass acknowledgement, common to said group;
and for each group:
checking, for each subgroup in said group, whether an uplink frame has been received from each end device allocated to said subgroup;
constructing (1), for each subgroup of said group having a positive check, a mass acknowledgement for each positive check subgroup includes common positive acknowledgement information indicating that all of said uplink frames received from all the end devices in said subgroup are acknowledged, and (2) for each subgroup of said group that has a negative check, one or more individual acknowledgement messages for each of the end devices in said negative check subgroup where any uplink frame is not acknowledged, thereby providing indication of not acknowledging any uplink frame received from the end devices in said negative check subgroup, and
wherein the mass acknowledgement further includes information representing an estimated instant of the next transmission of mass acknowledgement for said group; and
broadcasting the mass acknowledgement, and acknowledging in unicast mode the uplink frames received that have not been acknowledged by the mass acknowledgement.