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US 6,687,840 B1Granted
Multi-link extensions and bundle skew management
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsKen Drottar, David S. Dunning
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus, and system are provided for multi-link extensions and bundle skew management. According to one embodiment, multiple parallel links between two or more devices are combined into a single channel, and cells on the various links are received in a round-robin order, and variations in flight time between the various links are compensated through a timer at each receive port of the bundle.
Claims26
A method, comprising:
- combining a plurality of links between a plurality of devices in a computer system or network into a single channel;
- receiving a plurality of cells using the plurality of links of the single channel in a round-robin order;
- and
- compensating for variations in flight time between the plurality of links through a timer at each receive port of a bundle by determining whether a cell of the plurality of cells was received on an unexpected link of the plurality of links and, if the cell was received on the unexpected link, waiting for the cell to arrive on an expected link for up to a value of a timer of the expected link.
1 more element
An apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of devices having a central processing unit (CPU) and a peripheral device coupled with the CPU;
- a transmitter coupled with the CPU, the transmitter to transmit a plurality of links between the plurality of devices as a single channel;
- and
- a receiver coupled with the CPU, the receiver to receive a plurality of cells using the plurality of links of the single channel in a round-robin order, and compensating for variations in flight time between the plurality of links through a timer at each receive port of a bundle by determining whether a cell of the plurality of cells was received on an unexpected link of the plurality of links and, if the cell was received on the unexpected link, waiting for the cell to arrive on an expected link for up to a value of a timer of the expected link.
1 more element
A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sets of instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
- combine a plurality of links between a plurality of devices into a single channel;
- receive a plurality of cells using the plurality of links of the single channel in a round-robin order;
- and
- compensate for variations in flight time between the plurality of links through a timer at each receive port of a bundle by determining whether a cell of the plurality of cells was received on an unexpected link of the plurality of links and, if the cell was received on the unexpected link, waiting for the cell to arrive on an expected link for up to a value of a timer of the expected link.
1 more element
A system, comprising:
- a storage medium;
- a plurality of devices coupled with the storage medium, the plurality of devices having a central processing unit (CPU) and a peripheral device coupled with the CPU;
- a transmitter coupled with the CPU, the transmitter to transmit a plurality of links between the plurality of devices as a single channel;
- and
- a receiver coupled with the CPU, the receiver to receive a plurality of cells using the plurality of links of the single channel in a round-robin order, and compensating for variations in flight time between the plurality of links through a timer at each receive port of a bundle by determining whether a cell of the plurality of cells was received on an unexpected link of the plurality of links and, if the cell was received on the unexpected link, waiting for the cell to arrive on an expected link for up to a value of a timer of the expected link.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.