US 9,755,983 B1Granted

Minipacket flow control

AssigneeNetronome Systems, Inc.

InventorRon Lamar Swartzentruber

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing minipacket flow control. A device includes a traffic manager interface (TMI) circuit that receives a minipacket, communicates the minipacket to a physical layer circuit, and communicates a minipacket flow control signal to a scheduler circuit that controls if another minipacket is to be sent to the TMI circuit. In one example, upon receiving a minipacket the TMI circuit updates a current credit value, compares the current credit value with a credit limit value, and outputs a minipacket flow control signal that is a function of the comparison. In another example, upon receiving a minipacket the TMI circuit updates a current credit value, compares the current credit value with a credit limit value, reads and compares a credit pool value with a credit pool limit value, and outputs a minipacket flow control signal that is a function of both of the comparisons.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A circuit, comprising:

a scheduler circuit that schedules a packet for transmission;
a traffic manager interface circuit that receives a minipacket and communicates the minipacket to a physical network interface circuit, wherein the traffic manager interface circuit further comprises:
a channel router that receives the minipacket and outputs the minipacket onto one of a plurality of channels;
and
a first channel credit manager that updates a current credit counter value associated with the first channel, determines if an additional minipacket is allowed to be transmitted on the first channel, and outputs a first minipacket flow control signal, wherein the minipacket is stored in a memory unit, wherein the scheduler causes the minipacket to be written to the traffic manager interface circuit, and wherein the first channel credit manager comprises:
a credit limit register that stores a credit limit value;
a byte counter circuit that indicates when the amount of data transmitted through the first channel exceeds a first threshold value;
and
a credit counter circuit that compares the current credit value with the credit limit value and generates the first minipacket flow control signal.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.