TDMA networking using commodity NIC/switch

A network element, comprising:

• one or more network ports configured to communicate with a communication network;
• network time circuitry, configured to track a network time defined in the communication network;
• and
• packet processing circuitry, configured to:
• receive a definition of one or more timeslots that are synchronized to the network time;
• and
• process inbound packets, which are received from the communication network, depending on the respective timeslots in which the inbound packets were received.

A network element, comprising:

• one or more network ports configured to communicate with a communication network;
• network time circuitry, configured to track a network time defined in the communication network;
• and
• packet processing circuitry, configured to:
• queue outbound packets in one or more queues;
• assign credits to the queues depending on the network time;
• and
• transmit the outbound packets to the communication network in accordance with the assigned credits.

A network element, comprising:

• one or more network ports configured to communicate with a communication network;
• network time circuitry, configured to track a network time defined in the communication network;
• and
• packet processing circuitry, configured to:
• receive inbound packets from the communication network;
• determine times-of-arrival of the inbound packets, in accordance with the network time;
• and
• distribute the inbound packets to multiple queues based on the times-of-arrival.