Merging of data cells in an ATM network
US6104715A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 19, 1997 |
| Grant date | Aug 15, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 19, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2012/5648
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
This invention relates to the merging of data cells arriving at an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching node from data frames originating with a number of senders. As is standard in ATM networks, each originating frame is segmented into a series of cells each having Virtual Path Identifier (VPI) and a Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI) in its header portion. On arrival at each switching node, the VCI of the first cell of a frame is overwritten by a new outgoing VCI value that is used for all other cells of the frame. Thus, the actual movement of each cell through the network is controlled only by the cell's VPI, whereas the VCI field is used only to distinguish frames from each other. A feature of the invention is that it can accommodate Early Packet Discard in a simple way by associated any discard indication determined for a frame with the outgoing VCI value which also applies to all cells of the entire frame.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.