Patent · US Expired

Programmable arbitration system for determining priority of the ports of a network switch

US6389480B1 · kind B1 · utility

32Cited by
34References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 1, 2000
Grant dateMay 14, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 1, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S370/911
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A programmable arbitration system including control logic to select one of several arbitration schemes for selecting the ports of a network switch, a memory to store priority values indicating the relative priority of each of the ports, monitor logic to monitor each of the ports and to program the priority values in the memory based on a priority scheme selected by the control logic, and arbitration logic to select a port having the next highest priority. The arbitration schemes preferably include a round-robin priority scheme, a first-come, first-served (FCFS) priority scheme, a weighted priority scheme, or any other desirable priority scheme. The monitor logic includes polling logic to periodically poll the ports and to program a priority value of each port. The memory includes receive and transmit lists to indicate of which of the ports have indicated needing service and a corresponding priority value. The arbitration logic includes a receive arbiter and a transmit arbiter, each of which use a corresponding arbitration count.

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