The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 14, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 17, 1999
Edward L Koch, San Rafael, CA (US);
Jeffrey Warren Scott, San Francisco, CA (US);
Thomas Ian Armitage, Tiburon, CA (US);
LOYTEC Electronics GmbH, Vienna, AT;
Abstract
The present invention is a method for acknowledgment of receipt of a message in a network, where the network includes a plurality of nodes. The method includes sending a message from a first node of the plurality of nodes destined for a second node of the plurality of nodes; setting a timer for the first node for receipt of an acknowledgment packet from the second node; determining if a wait acknowledge packet is received by the first node; and resetting the timer if the wait acknowledge packet is received by the first node. The present invention adds a wait acknowledge event to the state in the acknowledgment protocol which waits for an acknowledgement packet from the destination node. The wait acknowledge packet notifies the recipient that the message sent by the originating node has been received and forwarded. As long as the message is being properly forwarded to the next hop, wait acknowledge packets will continue to be sent to the originating node. In this manner, the amount of time the originating node waits for the acknowledgment packet from the destination node is dynamic and is dependent upon the actual length of time it takes for the message to be transmitted through the network. This method reduces waste of network resources and minimizes the problem of unintentional duplicate messages.