Auto early packet discard (EPD) mechanism for automatically enabling EPD on an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network

An apparatus for automatically enabling early packet discard mode on a cell switching network comprising:

• a register coupled to a comparator and configured to hold a pre-determined threshold value for non-end of the frame data cell count arriving on a virtual connection;
• a cell counter per virtual connection, the cell counter coupled to the comparator and configured to count the number of non-end of the frame data cells which arrive on the virtual connection;
• and
• the comparator coupled to the register and the cell counter and configured to compare the pre-determined threshold value with the number of non-end of the frame data cells and responsively output a frame based traffic detect signal to automatically enable or disable the early packet discard.

A network communication system implemented with an auto early packet discard mechanism for automatically enabling and disabling early packet discard on a cell switching network comprising:

• a physical layer adaption controller configured to interface with a cell switching network layer and transfer data cells in and out of the network communication system;
• a cell queue controller coupled to the physical layer adaption controller and configured to determine whether to accept the data cells, the auto early packet discard mechanism residing in the cell queue controller and configured to automatically determine whether to enable the early packet discard according to traffic type of the data cells;
• a counter implemented in the cell queue controller that is incremented with every non-end of frame cell and is cleared with every end of frame cell;
• a cell queue memory coupled to the cell queue controller and configured to store the accepted data cells in service queues;
• and
• a call service controller coupled to the cell queue memory and the physical layer adaption controller and configured to determine which cell to send to the physical layer adaption controller.

An apparatus for automatically enabling early packet discard mode on a cell switching network comprising:

• means for holding a pre-determined threshold value for non-end of the frame data cell count arriving on a virtual connection;
• means for counting the number of non-end of the frame data cells which arrive on the virtual connection, the means for counting coupled to the means for holding;
• and
• means for comparing the pre-determined threshold value with the number of non-end of the frame data cells and responsively outputting a frame based traffic detect signal to automatically enable or disable the early packet discard.

A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations comprising:

• counting every non-end of the frame data cell that arrives on a network connection;
• comparing the number of non-end of the frame data cell resulting from the counting to a predetermined threshold value to determine whether traffic arriving on the network connection is a frame based traffic;
• and
• enabling early packet discard if the traffic is frame based.

An Asynchronous Transfer Mode switch comprising:

• means for holding a pre-determined threshold value for non-end of the frame data cell count arriving on a virtual connection;
• means for counting the number of non-end of the frame data cells which arrive on the virtual connection, the means for counting coupled to the means for holding;
• and
• means for comparing the pre-determined threshold value with the number of non-end of the frame data cells and responsively outputting a frame based traffic detect signal to automatically enable or disable early packet discard.