XON/XOFF flow control for computer network
AssigneeMaXXan Systems, Inc.
InventorsHawkins Yao, Mark Lyndon Oelke, John E. Jenne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for providing XON/XOFF port-level flow control for a computer network that has access to a plurality of network processors in communication with the computer network. At least one network processor has an egress port associated with an egress buffer, and a set of network processors is associated with a bridge.. XON/XOFF port-level flow control is implemented to halt and resume traffic directed to a congested port.
Claims12
A method for providing XON/XOFF port-level flow control for a computer network that has access to a plurality of network processors in communication with the computer network, wherein at least one network processor is composed of an egress port associated with an egress buffer, and a set of network processors is associated with a bridge, the method comprising the steps of:
- determining if the depth of an egress buffer for an egress port has reached a high watermark;
- generating an XOFF message associated with the egress port if the egress buffer of has reached the high watermark;
- and
- sending the XOFF message to the network processors, wherein the network processors will stop sending cells to the egress port associated with the XOFF message in response to receiving the XOFF message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.