Flow control mechanism of ABR traffic in ATM networks
US5991268A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 7, 1997 |
| Grant date | Nov 23, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 7, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L47/115
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An ATM network carries several categories of services, each having its own traffic characteristics and performance requirements. The ABR (available bit rate) service category is the only existing one suited for high-reliability data communications, such as file transfer, LAN emulation, etc. The invention relates to the control of ABR traffic flow in an ATM network, to quickly utilize the bandwidth left unused by higher priority service categories while minimizing ABR cell loss, and maintaining fairness among ABR connections. On each ABR connection, the source end system periodically sends RM (resource management) cells to the corresponding destination end system which loops them back to the source. The ATM network may instruct the ABR sources of the exact rates it can support by modifying a certain field in the RM cells. The invention relates to techniques of deriving the proper explicit cell rate for each ABR connection which can grow to a fair level even under special conditions.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.