Patent · US Expired

Path allocation system and method having double link list queues implemented with a digital signal processor (DSP) for a high performance fiber optic switch

US5502719A · kind A · utility

90Cited by
3References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 27, 1994
Grant dateMar 26, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 27, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L49/351
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A fiber optic switch interconnects ports (p1-pi) for connection with respective fiber optic channels so that a fiber optic network is realized. Channel modules provide the ports. Each channel module has a port intelligence mechanism for each port and a memory interface system for temporarily storing data passing to and from the ports. A switch module having a main distribution network, an intermix distribution network, and a control distribution network interconnects the memory interface systems and permits exchange of data among the ports and memory interface systems. A path allocation system controls the switch module and allocates the data paths therethrough. The path allocation system has a scheduler which maintains a destination queue (Q.sub.p1 -Q.sub.pi) for each of the ports. The destination queues are implemented with a double link list in a single memory configuration so that a separate queue structure in hardware is not necessary. Moreover, the scheduler is implemented with a digital signal processor (DSP) with on-chip memory so that the queues are implemented within the on-chip memory and can be accessed at high speed.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.