Patent · US Expired

Scheduling method and apparatus for supporting ATM connections having a guaranteed minimun bandwidth

US5946297A · kind A · utility

54Cited by
4References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 22, 1997
Grant dateAug 31, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 22, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L2012/568
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The method and apparatus of the present invention solve the problem of scheduling the transmission of cells in packet switched networks having network connections requiring a minimum bandwidth at connection establishment. The method and the apparatus further support any mixed traffic flow including connections requiring a minimum bandwidth, a fixed reserved bandwidth or no bandwidth at connection establishment. Scheduling is controlled by a dual scheduling mechanism having a first scheduler, triggered by absolute time, for scheduling the minimum service connections up to a rate corresponding to their reserved minimum bandwidth, a second scheduler and a queue of minimum service connection identifiers for communication between the two scheduling schemes. With the dual scheduling mechanism of the present invention, the minimum bandwidth for connections reserving a minimum bandwidth at connection establishment is guaranteed in each point of the connection path and at any time, with the level of fairness of the scheduling of the remaining bandwidth depending on the quality of the second scheduler.

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