US 2003/0152091 A1 · Scalable link-level flow-control for a switching device

Abstract

The present invention discloses a scalable flow-control mechanism. In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a switching device for transporting packets of data, the packets being received at the switching device based on flow-control information, the device comprising a memory for storing the packets, a credit counter coupled to the memory for counting a credit number of packets departing from the memory, and a scheduler unit coupled to the credit counter for deriving the flow-control information in response to the credit number. Moreover, a switching apparatus and a method for generating flow-control information is disclosed.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A switching device for transporting packets of data, the packets being received at the switching device based on flow-control information, the device comprising

a memory for storing the packets,
a credit counter coupled to the memory for counting a credit number of packets departing from the memory, and
a scheduler unit coupled to the credit counter for deriving the flow-control information in response to the credit number.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

10/357,534Filed 3 Feb 2003

Priority

EP 02002444.41 Feb 2002

Published

14 Aug 2003

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04L 47/10
Traffic control in data switching networks: flow control; Congestion control
H04L 47/30
Flow control; Congestion control: in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
H04L 47/39
Flow control; Congestion control: credit based
H04L 49/103
Characterised by the switching fabric construction: using a shared central buffer; using a shared memory

Scalable link-level flow-control for a switching device

Life of this patent

Scalable link-level flow-control for a switching device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15