US 9,426,079 B2Granted

Retransmission and memory consumption tracking of data packets in a network device

AssigneeBroadcom Corporation

InventorsDavid Wu, Darren Duane Neuman, Flaviu Dorin Turean, Rajesh Shankarrao Mamidwar, Anand Tongle, Sanjeev Sood

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Abstract

A method of handling retransmission and memory consumption tracking of data packets includes storing data packets from different data channels in respective transmitter ring buffers allocated to the data channels when the data packets are not marked for retransmission, and facilitating retransmission of data packets from a specified ring buffer corresponding to a retransmission sequence number. The method also may include storing received data packets out of sequence in respective receiver ring buffers, marking a descriptor indicating a tail location of the stored data packets, and reclaiming memory space in the ring buffer based on the marked descriptor. The method may include storing a payload address associated with received data packets, marking a descriptor associated with the payload address to indicate the stored data packets have been consumed for processing, and reclaiming memory space when a register contains an indication of the stored payload address based on the marked descriptor.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of handling retransmission of data packets, the method comprising:

facilitating transmission of a plurality of data packets on a plurality of data channels;
for each of the plurality of data channels, determining if one or more of the plurality of data packets corresponding to the data channel is marked for retransmission;
storing the one or more of the plurality of data packets corresponding to the data channel in a respective one of a plurality of ring buffers allocated to the plurality of data channels if the one or more of the plurality of data packets are not marked for retransmission, wherein the storing comprises advancing a write address and a corresponding sequence number for one of the plurality of ring buffers each time a burst of payload data is stored in the one of the plurality of ring buffers;
determining a retransmission sequence number within a transmission sliding window;
retrieving the stored data packets from the respective one of the plurality of ring buffers based on the retransmission sequence number;
facilitating retransmission of the retrieved data packets with the retransmission sequence number within a retransmission segment of the transmission sliding window;
and
advancing the transmission sliding window in response to receiving an acknowledgment packet that corresponds to the retransmission of the retrieved data packets.

5 more elements

A device, comprising:

one or more processor circuits configured to:
facilitate transmission of a plurality of data packets on a plurality of data channels, each data packet of the plurality of data packets being associated with one of the plurality of data channels, wherein one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets are not marked for retransmission;
store each data packet of the one or more data packets in one of a plurality of buffers based on one of the plurality of data channels associated with the data packet, wherein each of the plurality of buffers is associated with one of the plurality of data channels;
advance a write address and a corresponding sequence number for one of the plurality of buffers each time a burst of payload data is stored in the one of the plurality of buffers;
when a retransmission process is determined to begin:
provide a control signal to cease storage of data of the plurality of data packets not marked for retransmission;
provide an interrupt signal to cease a current transmission process, update the write address associated with the current transmission process, and store a next sequence number for the current transmission process;
select one of the plurality of buffers based on a retransmission sequence number within a transmission sliding window, wherein the retransmission sequence number is associated with at least one data packet of the one or more data packets;
retrieve the at least one data packet from the selected one of the plurality of buffers;
and
facilitate retransmission of the at least one retrieved data packet.

8 more elements

A computer program product comprising instructions stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the instructions comprising:

instructions to facilitate transmission of a plurality of data packets on a plurality of data channels, each data packet of the plurality of data packets being associated with one of the plurality of data channels, wherein one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets are not marked for retransmission;
instructions to store each data packet of the one or more data packets in one of a plurality of buffers based on one of the plurality of data channels associated with the data packet, wherein each buffer of the plurality of buffers is associated with one of the plurality of data channels, wherein each buffer of the plurality of buffers is associated with a respective start address and a respective initial sequence number register, and wherein the respective initial sequence number register of each buffer comprises an indication of a respective initial sequence number associated with a respective data packet stored at the respective start address of the buffer;
instructions to select one of the plurality of buffers based on a retransmission sequence number within a transmission sliding window and the respective initial sequence number register of each buffer of the plurality of buffers, wherein the retransmission sequence number is associated with at least one data packet of the one or more data packets;
instructions to retrieve the at least one data packet from the selected one of the plurality of buffers;
and
instructions to facilitate retransmission of the at least one retrieved data packet within a retransmission segment of the transmission sliding window.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.