Nortel Networks Corporation

Richard A Houle

Biswajit Nandy

Nabil Seddigh

Nausheen Naz

Carl F Cao

Yajun Liu

Don W Bennett

Dabin Wang

Fozia A Zaidi

Satheesa Nadaragh

Systems and methods applicable in the context of the TCP/IP suite of protocols explicitly are provided which allow for separate and preferential treatment of L -L control packets compared to the treatment of L data packets. This provides a performance gain at the cost of providing such preferential treatment for high error and long delay channels such as wireless links. Advantageously, channel utilization may be increased, for example by 5-50% depending on link conditions, on high error and long delay transmission links. More generally the invention distinguishes between control packets such as transport layer (for example, TCP, OSI Layer or L ) and application layer (for example, OSI Layer ) control packets and data packets, and transmits the control packets with higher reliability and lower delays. The benefit may be significant for IP applications where data objects transferred are small and are bursty, e.g., Web browsing and e-mail access.

Method and apparatus for improving channel utilization

Growing community of inventors

Nepean, Canada

Richard A Houle