A timer-based data link control protocol for mobile computing

We propose a solution to the problem of interconnecting mobile computer to the legacy networks. The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) has suggested the IrDA LAN (IrLAN) network architecture that contains an access point mode, hosted mode, and ad hoc mode; only the access point (AP) mode is considered in this work. The architecture of AP mode is shown. This mode supports mobile computers to access the Internet by access point (AP) equipment. The AP is a stationary equipment containing network interface card (NIC) and IrDA protocol stack; the AP server is used as a router (or gateway) for data transmission. It is clear that the AP mode is a typical usage including both fixed and mobile equipment. As the AP mode expects to be widely deployed, the solution to the power consumption in this mode is significant. Since the current version of the IrDa link access protocol (IrLAP) has a tradeoff between the transmission efficiency and power consumption, the transmission performance will be degraded when implementing electrical power consumption control. To overcome this tradeoff, we propose a timer-based data link control protocol to be a solution specific for the AP mode. The proposed protocol, as a variant of IrLAP, optimizes the power consumption of a mobile host and improves the protocol efficiency during connection establishment and communications. The the problems related to IrDA standards are reviewed, the proposed protocol is given, and the end-to-end protocol performance is evaluated.