Transmission device and temperature control method

A transmission device comprising:

• an associative memory in which, when data is specified, contents of the memory are searched for the data;
• a detector configured to detect an access rate to the associative memory;
• an estimation unit configured to estimate a temperature of the associative memory, based on the access rate to the associative memory;
• a prediction unit configured to predict a time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches a specified temperature, based on the temperature estimated by the estimation unit;
• and
• an access controller configured to control an access to the associative memory, based on the time period predicted by the prediction unit, wherein
• the access controller prohibits the access to the associative memory for the packet input to the transmission device and performs flooding of the input packet to a plurality of output ports of the transmission device when the time period predicted by the prediction unit elapses.

A transmission device comprising:

• an associative memory in which, when data is specified, contents of the memory are searched for the data;
• a detector configured to detect an access rate to the associative memory;
• an estimation unit configured to estimate a temperature of the associative memory, based on the access rate to the associative memory;
• a prediction unit configured to predict a time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches a specified temperature, based on the temperature estimated by the estimation unit;
• and
• an access controller configured to control an access to the associative memory, based on the time period predicted by the prediction unit, wherein
• the associative memory includes a plurality of memory blocks, and
• the access controller terminates power supply to at least one of the plurality of memory blocks when the time period predicted by the prediction unit elapses.

A transmission device comprising:

• an associative memory in which, when data is specified, contents of the memory are searched for the data;
• a detector configured to detect an access rate to the associative memory;
• an estimation unit configured to estimate a temperature of the associative memory, based on the access rate to the associative memory;
• a prediction unit configured to predict a time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches a specified temperature, based on the temperature estimated by the estimation unit;
• an access controller configured to control an access to the associative memory, based on the time period predicted by the prediction unit,
• a first access unit that is provided on an input side of the access controller and configured to search the associative memory for data included in the input packet;
• and
• a second access unit that is provided on an output side of the access controller and configured to search the associative memory for the data included in the input packet using a search result of the first access unit, wherein
• the access controller restricts the access to the associative memory from the second access unit, based on the time period predicted by the prediction unit.

A temperature control method of an associative memory in a transmission device that controls communication using the associative memory, the temperature control method comprising:

• detecting an access rate to the associative memory;
• estimating the temperature of the associative memory, based on the access rate to the associative memory;
• predicting a time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches a specified temperature, based on the estimated temperature of the associative memory;
• and
• controlling an access to the associative memory, based on the time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches the specified temperature, wherein
• the associative memory includes a plurality of entries, and
• the controlling deletes at least one of the plurality of entries when the time period predicted by the predicting elapses.

A transmission device comprising:

• an associative memory in which, when data is specified, contents of the memory are searched for the data;
• a detector configured to detect an access rate to the associative memory;
• an estimation unit configured to estimate a temperature of the associative memory, based on the access rate to the associative memory;
• a prediction unit configured to predict a time period until the temperature of the associative memory reaches a specified temperature, based on the temperature estimated by the estimation unit;
• and
• an access controller configured to control an access to the associative memory, based on the time period predicted by the prediction unit, wherein
• the prediction unit predicts a temperature change of the associative memory, based on a maximum value of an average access rate to the associative memory, which is repeatedly detected by the detector at a first time interval.