Method and apparatus for controlling the flow of data between servers
US6683850B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 27, 1998 |
| Grant date | Jan 27, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 27, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2001/0096
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Link-based flow control requires each link transmitter to retain packets until such time as they are acknowledged by the link receiver. Depending on the type of acknowledge, the transmitter will then either retry or de-allocate the packets. The NG I/O flow control of the present invention is credit based. At power up, each end of a link determines buffer size, deferring to the smaller implemented buffer if size is different. A transmitter will not send a packet unless buffer space at the receiver is available. Transmitter and receiver also synchronize on width of the link ID counter. Each link transmitter assigns an ordered ID (beginning with zero) to each sent packet. The link receiver tests the checksum of each delivered packet. If the packet tests with no error, the receiver sends a positive acknowledge (ACK) back to the transmitter. Flow control is either contained in its own packet or is appended to a packet assembling for transmission back. Some period of time can be consumed while the receiver attempts to acknowledge the transmitter. In the interests of efficiency, a receiver can ACK out-of-order to de-allocate buffer space for the named transaction and any other sequentiall…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.