Resource management scheme and arrangement

A method for centralizing management of a capacity of a circuit switched network having shared medium topology, the method comprising:

• providing a server node and a second node, the server node and the second node having capacities;
• providing unidirectionally flowing time slots on a shared medium communication link and providing a plurality of tokens;
• dividing the capacity of the shared medium communication link into cycles;
• dividing the cycles into control time slots for signaling and data time slots for transferring data therein;
• associating each time slot with a token;
• assigning tokens to the server node that corresponds to all unidirectionally flowing time slots on the shared medium communication link so that the server node has a free capacity available;
• the second node requesting tokens corresponding to a requested capacity from the server node;
• and
• the server node reserving and transferring the requested tokens to the second node if the requested capacity is less than the free capacity available of the server node;
• and
• transferring tokens back to the server node and releasing the tokens if the data time slots of the server node are idle and no longer used for transferring data.

A method for distributing management of a capacity of a circuit switched network having shared medium topology, the method comprising:

• providing at least two server nodes and a first node, second node, third node and fourth node, the nodes having capacities;
• providing time slots on a shared communication link;
• dividing the capacity of shared medium communication link into cycles;
• dividing the cycles into control time slots for signaling and data time slots for transferring data therein;
• providing a plurality of tokens, each token providing exclusive access to each time slot;
• associating each time slot with a token;
• assigning a first set of tokens to the first node and a second set of tokens to the second node, a third set of tokens to the third node and a fourth set of tokens to the fourth node that correspond to all time slots on the shared medium communication link;
• extending a first segment from the first node to the second node, the first segment using a first time slot;
• extending a second segment from the third node to the fourth node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment, the second segment using the first time slot;
• establishing a DTM block format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• simultaneously transmitting in the first time slot over the first and second disjointed segments.

A method for distributing management of a capacity of a circuit switched network having shared medium topology, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of tokens;
• providing at least two server nodes and a second node, the server nodes and the second node having capacities;
• providing unidirectionally flowing time slots on a shared communication link;
• dividing the capacity of shared medium communication link into cycles;
• dividing the cycles into control time slots for signaling and data time slots for transferring data therein;
• associating each time slot with a token;
• assigning tokens to the server nodes that correspond to all unidirectionally flowing time slots on the shared medium communication link so that the server nodes have free capacities available;
• the second node requesting tokens corresponding to a requested capacity from at least one of the server nodes;
• and
• one of the server nodes reserving and transferring the requested tokens to the second node if the free capacity available of the server node is greater than the requested capacity;
• and
• providing a home node and returning the tokens, that have been transferred from one of the server nodes to a second node, to the home node and releasing the tokens when the corresponding time slots are idle and no longer used for data transmission.

A node controller disposed in a node of a circuit-switched network having shared medium topology, comprising:

• the circuit-switched network having a capacity that is divided into control time slots for signaling and data time slots used for transferring data;
• each data time slot being assigned to each token so that a specific data time slot is only write-accessible by the token assigned to the specific data time slot, each token being usable for at least two cycles of information;
• a plurality of tokens associated with the node controller when the tokens correspond to a predetermined number of data time slots disposed in a bus topology;
• the node controller being configured to reserve and transfer tokens from a first node to another node controller disposed in fifth node if the fifth node has a free capacity that is greater than a capacity requested by the first node;
• a first segment extending from the first node to a second node, the first segment using a first time slot;
• a second segment extending from a third node to a fourth node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment, the second segment using the first time slot;
• an extended DTM format token format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• the first node being arranged to reserve a first block token capacity only on the first segment and the third node being arranged to reserve a second block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the first time slot over the first and second disjoint segments.

A server node disposed in a circuit-switched network having shared medium topology, comprising:

• the network having a capacity that is divided into cycles and the cycles being divided into control time slots adapted for signaling and data time slots adapted for transferring data;
• each data time slot being assigned to each token so that a specific data time slot is only write-accessible by the token assigned to the specific data time slot;
• the node controller being assigned a predetermined number of tokens of data time slots of a bus structure, the predetermined tokens being usable for more than one cycle of information by the node controller;
• and
• the node controller being configured to reserve and transfer tokens to another capacity requesting node controller disposed in another node if the free capacity available of the node controller is greater than the requested capacity of the other node controller;
• a first segment extending from a first node to a second node, the first segment using the first time slot;
• a second segment extending from a third node to a fourth node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment, the second segment using the second time slot;
• an extended DTM format token format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• the server node being arranged to reserve a first block token capacity only on the first segment and the server node being arranged to reserve a second block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the first time slot over the first and second disjoint segments.

A circuit-switched network having a shared medium topology, comprising:

• the network having a capacity that is divided into cycles and the cycles being divided into control time slots adapted for signaling and data time slots adapted for transferring data;
• each data time slot being assigned to each token so that a specific data time slot is only accessible by the token assigned to the specific data time slot;
• a server node assigned to tokens according to a predetermined number of data time slots disposed in a bus topology, the predetermined number of data time slots being usable for more than one cycle of information by the server node, the server node being configured to reserve and transfer tokens to another node if tokens are requested by the other node and if the other node has a free capacity available that is greater than a capacity requested by the server node;
• a first segment extending from a first node to a second node, the first segment using a first time slot;
• a second segment extending from a third node to a fourth node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment, the second segment using the first time slot;
• an extended DTM format token format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• the server node being arranged to reserve a first block token capacity only on the first segment and the server node being arranged to reserve a second block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the first time slot over the first and second disjoint segments.

A circuit-switched network having a shared medium topology, comprising:

• the network having a capacity that is divided into cycles and the cycles being divided into control time slots adapted for transferring data;
• each data time slot being assigned to each token so that a specific data time slot is only accessible by the token assigned to the specific data time slot;
• a first and second server node being defined, each server node having tokens that are distributed in a bus topology so that the tokens correspond to all data time slots flowing in one direction;
• the first and second server nodes being arranged to reserve and transfer tokens to a first node if the server nodes obtain the requested capacity of tokens from the first node and the server nodes have free capacity available that is greater than the requested capacity;
• a channel established between at least two server nodes, the channel having specific data time slots assigned thereto, the channel being usable for more than one cycle of information;
• a first segment extending from the first node to a second node, the first segment using a first time slot;
• a second segment extending from a third node to a fourth node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment, the second segment using the first time slot;
• an extended DTM format token format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• the first server node being arranged to reserve a first block token capacity only on the first segment and the second server node being arranged to reserve a second block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the first time slot over the first and second disjoint segments.