Apparatus and method for flow control
US7180857B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 8, 2002 |
| Grant date | Feb 20, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 18, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L47/26
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In flow control apparatus formed of a network of switching hubs in a hierarchy configuration for performing data packet transfer within each of a plurality of respectively separate groups of terminals, based on use of group identifiers contained in the data packets, occurrence of congestion of the output section of a port of a switching hub is judged respectively separately for each of the terminal groups, and one or more congestion notification packets for effecting a pause in data packet transmission are generated and transmitted from that switching hub, directed only to one or more terminals of a group relating to the congestion. As a result, the effects of port congestion and of congestion control operations are limited to the terminal group concerned. Congestion can be judged for a terminal group based on a level of utilization of a port output buffer that is used only by that group, or based on a rate of flow of data from that group into a port output buffer which is used in common for all terminal groups, and congestion notification packets may be transmitted from a single port or from a plurality of ports of a switching hub, in accordance with the detected degree of congest…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.