Simplified ethernet frame switching system architecture without local buffer requirement
US6347089B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 1, 1998 |
| Grant date | Feb 12, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 1, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/30
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention includes an Ethernet frame switching system for receiving and transmitting data frames from and to a plurality of ports. The frame switching system includes a plurality of port control units for managing the transmission and reception procedural processes with a physical layer device. The frame switching system further includes a queue management unit (QMU) connected with data buses to the port control unit. The data frames received from or transmitted to the port control unit are managed by the QMU that these data frames received are transmitted directly to and data frame for transmission or retrieved directly from a single shared data frame buffer such that the local data frame buffer is not required in each of the port control units. Without these local data buffers, the QMU applies a novel link list queue management process to complete the writing and reading of data frame for transfer over the data bus in a single time-division multiplexed time slot such that no loss of data frame occurs. The data frame queue management further include a special technique for managing the broadcast frames by employing a broadcast frame counter together with the link list …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.