Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for monitoring buffer contents in a data communication system

US6775293B1 · kind B1 · utility

10Cited by
8References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 30, 2000
Grant dateAug 10, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 5, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L2012/5682
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for buffering data units in a communication switch that allows for configurable monitoring of the buffer contents is presented. Such an apparatus includes a context table that stores a plurality of independent group identifiers for each connection. Although the group identifiers may include a partition group identifier and a loss group identifier that is dependent on the partition group identifier, additional group identifiers are included in the context table for each connection that are independent of other group identifiers in the context table. Such a context table may be dynamically reconfigured in order to group connections for buffer monitoring operations related to congestion detection, traffic shaping, and data admission with respect to buffering. When a data unit is received corresponding to a particular connection, the context table is referenced to retrieve the set of group identifiers corresponding to that connection. As a cell is stored in the buffer, count values corresponding to at least some of the group identifiers included in the set of group identifiers for that connection are incremented. Similarly, when data is dequeued from the buffer f…

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