Flow control process for a switching architecture using an out-of-band flow control channel and apparatus for performing the same
US6452900B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 7, 1998 |
| Grant date | Sep 17, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 7, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2012/5635
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A flow control process for a switching architecture having a central switch core with associated distributed Switch Core Access Layers communicating with the core by means of serial data communication links. The serial links carry data flows that are coded in accordance with the 8B/10B coding, where two among the three comma characters are used for creating an additional specialized flow control channel. When the cells are idle or empty, the nature of the comma character that appears at the beginning of the cell provides the appropriate flow control bit information. For instance, should the K.28.5 character be detected, the receiving entity (either the switching structure or a distributed SCAL element) decodes the character as positive flow control information, corresponding to a request to reduce the incoming data flow. Also, should the K.28.1 character be decoded, then the receiving entity decodes this as information according to which no reduction in the data flow is requested. When the incoming flow provides data cells, the invention uses a predetermined bit within the data cell, generally that immediately following the beginning of the cell, in order to carry the flow control …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.