Method and apparatus for controlling network data congestion
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsChristian D. Kasper, Elmer H. Guritz
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Abstract
A method, apparatus and network device for controlling the flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion, such as in the receive port of an HDLC controller is disclosed. A status error indicator is generated within a receive FIFO memory indicative of a frame overflow within the receive FIFO memory. In response to the status error indicator, an early congestion interrupt is generated to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the receive FIFO memory. The incoming frame is discarded and the services of received frames are enhanced by one of either increasing the number of words of a direct memory access (DMA) unit burst size, or modifying the time-slice of other active processes.
Claims37
A method for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion, comprising the steps of:
- generating a status error indicator within a FIFO memory of a network device indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- in response to the status error indicator, generating an early congestion interrupt to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the FIFO memory;
- discarding the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- and
- enhancing the servicing of frames received within the FIFO memory by one of either increasing the number of words of a direct memory access (DMA) unit burst size or modifying the time-slice of other active processes.
A method for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion, comprising the steps of:
- generating a status error indicator within a FIFO memory of a network device indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- in response to the status error indicator, generating an early congestion interrupt to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the FIFO memory;
- and
- discarding the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow within the FIFO memory.
A method for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion, comprising the steps of:
- generating a status error indicator within a FIFO memory of a network device indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- generating from the FIFO memory an early congestion interrupt to a communications processor in response to the status error indicator;
- processing the interrupt and setting at least one early congestion notification bit within an interrupt register of a direct memory access unit;
- generating an early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the FIFO memory;
- and
- generating instructions from the host processor to the FIFO memory to discard the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow.
A method for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion, comprising the steps of:
- generating a status error indicator within a FIFO memory of a network device indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- generating from the FIFO memory an early congestion interrupt to a communications processor of the network device in response to the status error indicator;
- processing the interrupt and setting at least one early congestion notification bit within an interrupt register of a direct memory access unit of the network device;
- generating an early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the FIFO memory;
- generating instructions from the host processor to the FIFO memory to discard the incoming frame that caused the frame overflow;
- and
- enhancing the servicing of received frames by one of either increasing the number of words of a direct memory access (DMA) unit burst size or modifying the time-slice of other active processes.
An apparatus for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion comprising:
- a FIFO memory, including means for generating a status error indicator indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- a direct memory access unit having an interrupt register and early notification bits that are set in response to the status error indicator corresponding to the overflow within the FIFO memory;
- means for generating an early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit;
- a host processor for receiving the early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit;
- and
- means for generating instructions from the host processor to the FIFO memory to discard the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow.
An apparatus for controlling flow of network data arranged in frames and minimizing congestion comprising:
- a FIFO memory, including means for generating a status error indicator indicative of the frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- a direct memory access unit having an interrupt register and early notification bits that are set in response to the status error indicator corresponding to the overflow within the FIFO memory;
- means for generating an early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit;
- a host processor for receiving the early congestion interrupt from the direct memory access unit;
- means for generating instructions from the host processor to the FIFO memory to discard the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow;
- and
- means for enhancing the servicing of received frames by one of either increasing the number of words of a direct memory access (DMA) burst size or modifying the time-slice of other active processes.
A network device for controlling network data congestion, comprising:
- means for generating a status error indicator within a FIFO memory indicative of a frame overflow within the FIFO memory;
- means for reading the status error indicator and, in response, generating an early congestion interrupt to a host processor indicative that a frame overflow has occurred within the FIFO memory;
- and
- means for discarding the incoming frame that has caused the frame overflow within the FIFO memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.