US 6,477,144 B1 · Time linked scheduling of cell-based traffic

Abstract

A node in a packet network such as an ATM network receives a plurality of traffic classes and outputs them to an output link. The invention relates to a technique of scheduling the traffic classes in a time linked fashion at the node based on the bandwidth allocated to each traffic class. Traffic scheduling based strictly on priority may not satisfy delay and loss guarantees of traffic classes when there are many classes with many different priority levels. The rate based scheduling in a time-linked fashion solves these problems by limiting the bandwidth to which each class is accessible. According to one embodiment, the invention uses timeslot values and a linked list of the traffic classes.

Claims25

Dependent claims

In a packet network in which a node receives a plurality of traffic classes and outputs them to an output link, a method of scheduling the traffic classes, comprising steps of:

buffering cells of each traffic class in a respective queue;
assigning reference numbers, Tnext, to traffic classes buffered in the queues;
creating one or more linked lists of traffic classes, each list having traffic classes with a similar scheduled departure time determined from Tnext;
outputting cells to the output link from the queues according to the departure time of the linked list of traffic classes, and
updating the Tnext according to the bandwidth allocated to each class.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Time linked scheduling of cell-based traffic

Life of this patent

Time linked scheduling of cell-based traffic

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25