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AssigneeAT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorsEllen L. Hahne, Charles R. Kalmanek, Samuel P. Morgan
Estimating the term…
A method of controlling congestion in a virtual circuit packet network. A initial packet buffer is assigned to each virtual circuit at each node into which incoming packets are stored and later removed for forward routing. If a larger buffer is desired for a virtual circuit to service a larger amount of data, then additional buffer space is dynamically allocated selectively to the virtual circuit on demand if each node has sufficient unallocated buffer space to fill the request. In one embodiment, the criterion for dynamic allocation is based on the amount of data buffered at the data source. In alternative embodiments, the criteria for dynamic allocation may be further based on the amount of data buffered at each node for a virtual circuit and the total amount of free buffer space at each node of a virtual circuit. Signaling protocols are disclosed whereby data sources and virtual circuit nodes maintain consistent information describing the buffer allocations at all times.
A method employed to control congestion of data cells in switching nodes of a network wherein one or more virtual circuits for transferring the data cells between endpoints pass through one or more of the switching nodes, said method comprising the steps of
A method employed to control congestion of data cells in switching nodes of a network wherein one or more virtual circuits for transferring the data cells between endpoints pass through one or more of the switching nodes, each switching node including a cell buffer for each virtual circuit passing therethrough and said method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.