Credit-based pacing scheme for heterogeneous speed frame forwarding
AssigneeZarlink Semiconductor V.N. Inc.
InventorsCraig I. Barrack, Brian Yang, John Lam, Rong-Feng Chang
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Abstract
A credit-based pacing scheme for heterogeneous speed frame forwarding. A control logic controls the transmission of data between a source device and a destination device in accordance with a handshaking protocol. Pacing logic paces the transmission of the data from the source device to the destination device to prevent congestion in the switching fabric. A credit scheme is used to arbitrate among multiple pacing modules per device, each forwarding data at a different rate.
Claims33
A method of controlling the flow of data in a heterogeneous speed network switching environment, comprising the steps of:
- controlling with control logic of a source device the transmission of the data between said source device and a destination device in accordance with a handshaking protocol;
- and
- pacing transmission of the data from said source device to said destination device with pacing logic.
A data flow control architecture in a heterogeneous speed network switching environment, comprising:
- control logic of a source device for controlling the transmission of the data between said source device and a destination device in accordance with a handshaking protocol;
- and
- pacing logic for pacing transmission of the data from said source device to said destination device.
A method of credit-based pacing of data in a heterogeneous switching environment, comprising the steps of:
- controlling with control logic transmission of the data between a source device and a destination device, in accordance with a handshaking protocol, said source device having a plurality of input ports, said plurality of input ports operational at two or more different data bandwidths;
- pacing transmission of the data from each of said plurality of input ports of said source device to said destination device with corresponding pacing logic;
- and
- arbitrating between said corresponding pacing logic with arbitration logic, transmission of the data from said respective plurality of input ports.
A credit-based pacing architecture for forwarding data in a heterogeneous switching environment, comprising:
- control logic for controlling transmission of the data between a source device and a destination device, in accordance with a handshaking protocol, said source device having a plurality of input ports, said plurality of input ports operational at two or more different data bandwidths;
- corresponding pacing logic for pacing the speed of transmission of the data from each of said plurality of input ports of said source device to said destination device;
- and
- arbitrating logic for arbitrating between said corresponding pacing logic transmission of the data from said respective plurality of input ports.
A method of switching frames from a port on a source device to a port on a destination device so as to prevent large buffer and bandwidth requirements and to simplify flow control, comprising:
- implementing a handshaking protocol between an input buffer and a destination port wherein data is kept from arriving at the destination device until the data is specifically requested by the destination port and the data can be transmitted to the wire immediately;
- implementing a pacing protocol to prevent congestion in the network by transmitting data fragments from the source device at substantially the rate at which the data fragments will eventually be transmitted to the destination device;
- implementing a credit scheme for arbitrating between two pacing protocols per device, each pacing protocol forwarding data at a different rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.