Managing monotonically increasing counter values to minimize impact on non-volatile storage
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorsGlenn R. Engel, Glen L. Purdy JR.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Reducing writes to non-volatile storage in a system for tracking sequence numbers in a communications protocol. In a system which tracks sequence numbers, a sequence number base is kept in non-volatile storage. During normal operation, the value in non-volatile storage is not rewritten until it exceeds the base value in non-volatile storage plus a predetermined update constant. On startup, the sequence number is set to the value in non-volatile storage plus the predetermined update constant.
Claims12
In a system for tracking sequence numbers in a communications protocol, the method of tracking the sequence numbers in non-volatile memory comprising:
- initializing a sequence number in volatile memory from the sequence number stored in non-volatile memory,
- updating the sequence number in volatile memory, and
- updating the sequence number in non-volatile memory when the sequence number in volatile memory exceeds the sequence number in non-volatile memory by a predetermined update value.
A computer readable medium that includes executable instructions for processing sequence number information used in communications protocols, said computer readable medium comprising:
- code for initializing a sequence number in a volatile memory from a sequence number stored in a non-volatile memory,
- code for updating the sequence number in the volatile memory, and
- code for updating the sequence number in the non-volatile memory when the sequence number in the volatile memory exceeds the sequence number in the non-volatile memory by a predetermined update value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.