Reducing delays in a communication network using a re-fragmentation pipeline

An apparatus to reduce delay in a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

• a fragmentation unit to re-assemble a packet received from a first data link, the fragmentation unit comprising a re-assembly buffer to store the received packet;
• and
• a refragmentation pipeline coupled to the fragmentation unit to pipeline the re-assembled data for transmission to a second data link;
• wherein the re-assembly buffer transfers data to the refragmentation pipeline if an amount of data in the re-assembly buffer is equal to or greater than a fragment size of the second data link, and is emptied if the received packet is a begin packet.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer program code embodied therein for reducing delay in a communication network, the computer program product having:
• (a) computer readable program code for receiving a packet from a first data link for transmission to a second data link;
• and
• (b) computer readable program code for pipelining data of the received packet via a refragmentation pipeline, the computer readable program code for pipelining comprising:
• (b1) computer readable program code for adding the received packet to a re-assembly buffer,
• (b2) computer readable program code for removing data from the re-assembly buffer if an amount of data in the re-assembly buffer is equal to or greater than a fragment size of the second data link,
• (b3) computer readable program code for emptying the re-assembly buffer if the received packet is a begin packet.

A system comprising:

• first and second network interfaces for receiving and transmitting data over a communication network via first and second data links, respectively;
• a processing unit coupled to the first and second network interfaces to reduce delay in data transmission in the communication network, the processing unit comprising:
• a fragmentation unit coupled to the first network interface to re-assemble a packet received from the first data link, the fragmentation unit comprising a re-assembly buffer to store the received packet, and
• a refragmentation pipeline coupled to the fragmentation unit to pipeline the re-assembled data for transmission to a second data link;
• wherein the re-assembly buffer transfers data to the refragmentation pipeline if an amount of data in the re-assembly buffer is equal to or greater than a fragment size of the second data link and is emptied if the received packet is a begin packet.

An apparatus to reduce delay in a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

• a fragmentation means to re-assemble a packet received from a first data link, the fragmentation means comprising a re-assembly buffer means to store the received packet;
• and
• a refragmentation pipeline means coupled to the fragmentation means to pipeline the re-assembled data for transmission to a second data link;
• wherein the re-assembly buffer means transfers data to the refragmentation pipeline means if an amount of data in the re-assembly buffer means is equal to or greater than a fragment size of the second data link and is emptied if the received packet is a begin packet.