Polling system that determines the status of network ports and that stores values indicative thereof
US5862338A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 30, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jan 19, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 30, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/354
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A multiport polling system for a network switch including a plurality of network ports, each including receive and transmit buffers. Each port includes port status logic for providing status signals indicative of whether a corresponding port has received data from a network device and whether a corresponding port has available space to receive data to transmit to a network device. The network switch further includes a switch manager for controlling data flow between the ports. The switch manager includes polling logic for periodically polling the port status logic of each port for receiving the status signals, and a memory for storing values indicative of the status signals for each port. In this manner, all of the ports are simultaneously polled in a singe query and the receive and transmit status of each port is maintained in the memory. This facilitates arbitration and control logic, which continuously reviews the memory to determine when to retrieve data from a source port and when to transmit data to one or more destination ports. The ports are preferably implemented with quad cascade devices for providing multiplexed status signals.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.